Issue 6 - Hilary Term 6

Volume 72 Issue 6

Thursday 19th February 5th Week

oxfordstudent.com

Former OUSU RO denies association with NUS vote rigging • Alex Walker’s actions “allowed for the defrauding of the electorate”, claims OUSU motion LUKE MINTZ NEWS EDITOR

Profile: Natalie Bennett, p.13 »

Pushing for a change in politics

PHOTO/ Tom Gildon

A former OUSU Returning Officer has dismissed claims he is “associated” with the rigging of last May’s NUS referendum, after a no-confidence motion proposed for this week’s OUSU Council accuses him of “improper” and “anti-democratic” behaviour.

Alex Walker, a third-year Chemistry student at Wadham College, described the proposed motion of no-confidence against him as a “nasty little vendetta”, as well as “factually incorrect” and “totally misleading”.

Walker was OUSU Returning Officer during last year’s Universitywide referendum on NUS affiliation.

Originally producing a ‘No’ vote, the referendum’s result was declared void following suspicion of vote rigging, with over 1,000 spare voter codes used

Continued on page 8 »

Student backlash against open letter signed by Oxford academics • Criticisms of letter to The Observer concerning no platform and free speech • Liberation groups’ response published on page 7 LAURA WHETHERLY NEWS EDITOR

Oxford liberation groups have released an official response to condemn a controversial letter signed by four Oxford academics.

The original letter, entitled “We cannot allow censorship and silencing of individuals” was published by The Observer newspaper on Sunday 15th February. 131 signatories were listed, including Oxford academics Dr Rachel Hewitt, Professor

Deborah Cameron, Dr Samantha Lyle and Dr Michael Whitworth.

As well as saying that “universities have a particular responsibility” to support the notion of free speech, the letter criticised groups such as the National Union of Students for no-platforming certain individuals and groups. They added that the notion of “no-platform” has been used “to prevent the expression of feminist arguments critical of the sex industry and of some demands made by trans activists”.

The content of this letter has come under significant criticism. In particular, critics have noted the views expressed towards the trans community and sex workers, with the letter stating: “But today [no-platforming] is being used to prevent the expression of feminist arguments critical of the sex industry and of some demands made by trans activists”.

WomCam and other Oxford liberation groups have issued an official response in the form of a letter, stating that: “We condemn the open letter and ask all

of the signatories who are members of Oxford University to retract their signatures and to make public apologies for adding to the discrimination against sex workers and trans people within our community.”.

Tim Squirrell, ex-President of the Cambridge Union, said to The Oxford Student: “There are a couple of issues with the letter. The first is the way it misrepresents the facts, particularly of the Kate Smurthwaite case, in order to fit a narrative of freedom of speech under

Comment, p.9

Features, p.19

On OUSU responding to Le Pen, and student politicians speaking in our name

We speak to Akeel Malik, one of the students behind the Ublend app

threat. The second is the way that it attempts to delegitimise protest and social pressure, some of the most important forms of free expression, as ‘illiberal’ and ‘bullying’.

“Open debate is incredibly important in university culture, but trying to silence grassroots activists, who don’t have access to national newspapers and whose ability to express their views is often restricted to protest and other such means, is not the way to go about securing that kind of Continued on page 7 »

EDITORIAL

2 Editorial

19th February 2015

Dis-Union In a week when long sought-after rules changes have been passed and a visit from Buzz Aldrin has been confirmed, it seems to be a pretty good time for the Oxford Union.

Yet the possibility that the Ben Sullivan case could be re-opened casts a shadow over things. Whatever your feelings on the case, it cannot be denied that last Trinity caused a rift in the student body, and this was partially due to the way things were handled by the Union.

The events of two terms ago are in themselves, impetus for reform. Yet even in making what are espoused to be positive changes, the Union couldn’t quite help but parody itself.

The excessive ‘rules-gimping’ last Thursday when amendments were proposed to the rules changes showed a simple lack of understanding on the part of Union officials. The average member would probably like a fair electoral system, but when you’ve paid over £200 for your membership, a main concern is socials and speakers – the panis et circenses of the Union.

Delaying events for nearly an hour in order to debate procedure that very few people understand demonstrates how out of touch the society can be.

Of course, bureaucracy is king, and the Union is not the only place where it reigns in Oxford. This issue, more than any, is emblematic of this. We conduct everything in open letters, council motions, opinion pieces, and Facebook likes. These things are all vital in getting different voices in to the public sphere, but there comes a point when we become a little too

caught up in getting the last word.

There is absolutely a place for this, but too often it can end up alienating those who are not heavily involved with student politics. The pointscoring and procedure can distract from anything which is really trying to make a positive change.

Open Letters Our place in all of this is, as a newspaper, to try and represent as many views as we can, as truthfully as we can. This week, we are publishing an open letter from Oxford liberation groups in response to a letter published in The Observer, which featured signatures from Oxford Academics. These academics have a prestigious position, and our job as a student newspaper is to make sure that student voices get the platform they require, especially when they come into conflict with other elements of the university. Elsewhere in the paper other elements of the student population have a chance to raise their voices. We reported on a different open letter condemning OUSU over its role in the protests at Marine Le Pen two weeks ago (page 6), and a comment piece on page 9 represents a similar viewpoint.

We do not publish open letters very often (or any other kind of letters as it happens). However with this issue we felt that we had a duty to represent the student community, and particularly the voices of the liberation groups such as the Women’s Campaign and the LGBTQ Society.

These are groups that are more than

simply representative for parts of the student population, but whose actions directly aim at improving the lives of people marginalized and alienated by much of Oxford society.

After the open letter to The Observer specifically addressed the actions of Oxford students it is essential that students are able to issue their own response.

Fifty Shades of Feminism

Feminism is not just found in our news section this week though, as an interview with Green Party leader Natalie Bennett (page 13) prompts some interesting answers on women’s participation in politics and trans issues. In our OXII section we have a review of the feminist punks SleaterKinney, and two separate features in light of the release of Fifty Shades of Grey, on OXII pages 7 and 14, which has prompted numerous debates about whether its portrayal of BDSM can be considered feminist.

Even if whips and chains don’t excite you (sorry Rihanna), there’s plenty more to enjoy in this week’s OxStu.

If you want to get involved, or have any comments or questions, email editor@ oxfordstudent.com

News 3

19th February 2015

Ben Sullivan investigation could be reopened, says CPS • CPS confirms that a request for review is “being considered”; member of investigation team says officers had “fixed opinions” on case LUKE MINTZ NEWS EDITOR

The police investigation into former Oxford Union President Ben Sullivan could be reopened, after one of the alleged victims has requested a Victims’ Right to Review.

Sullivan was arrested last May on suspicion of rape and attempted rape, but was later released without charge.

The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that a request has been made and is “being considered”.

According to a report in The Sunday Mirror, the alleged victim claims that the original police investigation was “flawed” and that some potential witnesses were “intimidated”.

A former member of the investigation team told The Mirror: “The view of many of those working on the case at the time was that was it was not thoroughly investigated.

“Some officers already had fixed opinions before we had the full facts.”

Thames Valley Police stated that the unnamed officer quoted in The Mirror “was not speaking on behalf of the Force”.

The officer’s comments have since been referred to the force’s Professional Standards Department for review.

A CPS spokeswoman told The Oxford Student: “A request has been made through the CPS Victims’ Right to Review (VRR) scheme for a review of no further decision in this case. The VRR scheme gives victims the right to request a review of a CPS decision not to prosecute or to terminate criminal proceedings.”

If the request is approved, Thames Valley Police may reopen the criminal investigation into Sullivan, who was released without charge around six weeks after his arrest.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s guidelines for review give a limit of three months for a VRR request from the confirmation of a decision not to prosecute, with any extension beyond this period only permitted “in exceptional circumstances”.

Sullivan’s arrest last May attracted national publicity, with a string of speakers cancelling appearances at the Union.

Sullivan later stated that those accused of rape should have anonymity until initial police investigations have been conducted, with the Christ Church History and Politics student appearing on Newsnight alongside then-OUSU VP for Women Sarah Pine.

Ben Sullivan was unavailable for comment.

Corpus students thrown out of Halfway Hall

PHOTO/Roger Askew

Union implements biggest election changes for 16 years CONOR HAMILTON DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR

PHOTO/Padraic

The Oxford Union has implemented major changes to its election rules, with candidates now allowed to form slates and campaign electronically.

Union candidates are still banned from spending money specifically on campaigning.

A Re-Open Nomination (RON) option will also be added to all ballots in future elections to ensure that those who stand uncontested for Union positions are not automatically elected.

The debate on the rule changes took place last Thursday before the scheduled feminism debate. It was originally scheduled to take place the week before, but protests against the visit of Front National leader Marine Le Pen led to the debate being postponed.

Union President Lisa Wheden supported the change, stating: “I believe these changes are incredibly positive for the Union Society. This is the first time the rules concerning Union elections have been changed in 16 years”.

The electoral rule changes were initially passed by an 89.6 per cent majority in a poll last term, organised by the Union’s thenPresident, Mayank Banerjee.

However, former Returning Officer Ronald Collinson claimed that Banerjee had not given

sufficient notice to advertise the poll properly. The poll also gave no opportunity for members to propose or debate amendments.

The ensuing row within the Union led to Banerjee threatening to resign if the new rules were not enforced in the Michaelmas term elections.

The old rules remained in place and Banerjee remained in his position.

Collinson proposed six amendments in the debate last Thursday after travelling from Cambridge. Only one was passed.

13 amendments were originally proposed by members, but most of these were considered to be “friendly” by current Returning Officer Thomas Reynolds, and thus passed without negotiation.

Amendment Six, the only nonfriendly amendment to pass, bans the creation of formal or informal agreements between Union members and members of other societies.

The amendment to keep preventing candidates from forming slates was narrowly defeated by just nine votes. 62 members voted for the amendment while 71 were opposed to it.

Wehden added: “These rules changes now allow for open campaigning and the introduction of RON, which aims to ensure more transparent and fairer elections.

“The members voted in favour of these rules changes and I am incredibly pleased these changes will be in place for this term’s election”.

Halfway hall celebrations at Corpus Christi were brought to an abrupt end on Friday evening when the Junior College Dean ordered all students to leave the hall. The Dean warned diners several times during the evening that their noise levels were “unacceptably high”. Several Corpus students responding by “shushing” each other in a reportedly sarcastic manner, prompting the Dean to cut the event short during the dessert course. One second year humanities student described the decision as “slightly absurd”, saying: “we had all paid up to £10 for that night, and we didn’t get to properly enjoy it because the Dean decided we were being too loud. By all accounts we weren’t being any louder than the average formal.”

Another student present at the dinner told The OxStu: “The Dean’s decision was completely justified. Eating in anything other than complete silence is completely unnacceptable. There is no place for conversation or laughter in the college hall, nor is there any place for enjoyment or fun in university more generally. Such evils merely serve as distractions from our mission to become efficient and productive slaves to the glorious capitalist establishment”.

Creation of Whaleliol Balliol College have passed a motion proposing to unify with Wadham under the new name of Whaleliol.

Original propositions for Balliol to buy an armed tank and “shower Wadham with glitter” have since been downgraded to a fish tank following further discussion. There have also been further suggestions that either a tunnel will be created between the two colleges, or, as an alternative plan, to invade and demolish Trinity in a pincer movement. At the time of writing, Wadham have not yet made an official response to this proposition.

Cherwell co-editors in Facebook rift Professional relationships at the centre of student newspaper Cherwell were dramatically thrown into doubt on Tuesday evening, when editor Robert Walmsley ‘liked’ a nightclub suggestion made on Facebook by OxStu Deputy Editor Nasim Asl over one made by his co-editor Luke Barratt. This drastic editorial rift has been compared by many commentators to the conflict between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, with one OxStu staff member expressing doubt as to whether the paper can continue.

4 News

19th February 2015

Somerville and Oriel launch Regent's Park run 'make your own Pride flag' workshop joint 'Equaliweek' events • College refusals to fly the LGBTQ Flag lead to students making own MARY GEORGE News Reporter

Somerville and Oriel students are hosting ‘Equaliweek’ this week, a series of talks and events that aim to promote diversity and freedom from discrimination.

The events, which range from talks and workshops to an art exhibition and a fashion show, are open to all. They aim to tackle some of the injustices faced by particular groups at Oxford, and to start a discussion about how equality can be achieved.

Equaliweek addresses a wide variety of issues, including homophobia, gender equality, religion and disabilities. This included a talk by the well known LGBTQ and Human Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell on Wednesday.

Whilst some of the events are aimed at particular groups of students (for example WomCam or the DisibiliTea), Jonathan Lawrence, LGBTQ rep at Somerville College, said “the vast majority of the events have been organised with the idea of inclusivity at heart - our goal is to educate, inform and entertain as many Oxford students as are willing to attend the events.”

Kate Bradley, the LGBTQ rep at Oriel College, said: “EqualiWeek is a chance for people to learn about and engage with inequality at Oxford and discuss solutions to injustices at our own university.”

Lawrence went on to state: “Our aims are simple - to highlight the problem of a lack of diversity in Oxford, to celebrate the presence of minority students in Oxford, and to provide a safe space for them to discuss issues pertaining to them. We aim to educate all students about different cultures, perspectives and issues of which they

may not previously have been aware.”

The organizers hope that Equaliweek will have a positive impact across the university. Amy Lineham, Oriel’s Disabilities and Equal Opportunities Rep, said: “Equaliweek has been organized to oppose prejudice or discrimination of any kind - it is designed to get people thinking and talking about inequality and encourage positive action against such injustice.”

Events taking place throughout the week include talks on women in academia, homophobia, gendered intelligence, and autism, as well as a university-wide disability tea (Disibilitea).

IMAGE/Somerville-Oriel EqualiWeek

OXSTU NEWS TEAM

Students around Oxford are displaying homemade rainbow flags from their bedroom windows to protest decisions made by various college authorities against flying pride flags during LGBTQ History Month.

Regent’s Park JCR held a welfare event on Sunday encouraging students to paint and display their own pride flags. The move comes after students at Brasenose College adorned their college quad with rainbow flags to protest the refusal of college authorities to display the rainbow flag from their pole.

Corpus Christi JCR has put up several pride flags in windows around the quad, after some were torn down from the JCR wall last Saturday in an action later condemned by Corpus JCR. Regent’s JCR President Alex Rennison supported the DIY welfare initiative: “The JCR was disappointed with college’s decision to not fly the rainbow flag, but since securing permission for students to display their own flags around college, the JCR has greatly enjoyed making a collective statement of support for the LGBTQ+ community.

“To its own credit, college has not ruled out the possibility for further negotiations, and now that the student body has made its opinions on the matter clear, we will be looking to engage with college in further constructive discussion on how it can show support for the cause in the future.”

Numerous colleges, including Wadham and Exeter, are flying the rainbow pride flag for the entirety

PHOTO/Will Tomsett

of LGBTQ History Month, whilst others, including Magdalen and New, have decided to display the flag for the final week of the month.

Will Tomsett, LGBTQ Rep at Regent’s, described the college’s refusal to fly the flag as “disappointing”, but expressed delight at the JCR’s initiative: “The JCR decided to fly flags from the windows of our rooms nonetheless, and a range of homemade flags and shop-bought ones have bedecked the main quad with much-needed colour in the rainy days of Hilary!”

Isobel Wilson, JCR Welfare Rep at Regent’s, showed similar support for the Sunday afternoon initiative, describing the efforts of JCR members as “admirable”.

Wilson commented: “The JCR

was disappointed with college’s decision, but we did not feel that this should stop the undergraduate body from expressing their support for the movement.

“Our Gender and Sexuality Officer has been providing flags for students in college to fly from their rooms and also students living offsite to fly in the local area. We ran a flag making event to ensure that every one who wanted to could have a rainbow flag. I think the actions taken by the JCR are admirable to show the great amount of support for the LGBTQ+ community felt within Regent’s.”

Last year, students at Brasenose attracted national publicity for their flag protest, with Christ Church students performing a similar feat in 2013.

Teddy Hall JCR renounces ties with porn actress Jenna Jameson • Latest JCR meeting sees vote to remove actress and entrepeneur removed from list of "Honorary Members" passed

BERTRAM BEOR-ROBERTS Deputy News Editor

Students at Teddy Hall voted to remove pornographic actress and entrepreneur Jenna Jameson from their list of “Honorary Members” in a JCR meeting last Sunday.

The motion, submitted by president Ed Benson and seconded by the welfare officer Ellie Pryer, originally noted that “having said porn star as an honorary member of the JCR reflects badly on us as a student body, we are not in the business of promoting an industry that is often (if not always) demeaning to women, which propagates the idea of the female body as a sex object”.

The motion further raised concerns over potential applicants being put of by a “student body that elevates a porn star to ‘legendary status,’” as the Honorary Members feature on the JCR’s public website.

During the course of the debate, an amendment to change the description away from “Queen of Porn” was rejected in favour of an amendment that

removed Ms. Jameson, but not for the reasons originally proposed.

During the course of the debate, these original reasons were deemed by some to be endorsing a negative attitude towards sex workers. Instead, the motion passed with the amended reasoning that: “We don't agree with the reasoning for which she was made an honorary member – as it was done for a group of 'lads' as a joke.

We don't disagree with sex workers”.

President Ed Benson commented: “When I submitted my motion to remove her as an honorary member it soon became clear to me from discussions with JCR members that it was poorly worded, it was seen by some to make the case for removing Jenna Jameson because she was a sex worker. I must make it clear that this was never my intention.

"This was about undoing an embarrassing piece of Teddy Hall history, as she was proposed as a sexist joke by previous members of the JCR who do not reflect the progressive attitude of Teddy Hall today”.

Despite the amendment, the debate over the original and adapted motions

have caused consternation amongst many, especially on Oxford feminist group Cuntry Living.

Paigan Aspinall, who published the original minutes, was struck by the tone of the debate: “The attitude in the room was really torn; some people raised some really good points (about remembering our past mistakes and reclaiming them), but there was also a lot of negativity; when I spoke about Jameson's past life (she was raped twice before age 17, etc) and what she had gone on to do, I was met with giggles and sarcastic comments.”

Aspinall added that the proposer was keen for friendly amendments to the motion, and she believes that: “I don't think [Benson] thought the motion through and really regretted it, and wanted to change it not to insult people”.

Cuntry Living administrator Alice Nutting commented on the post: “How is this a ‘positive change’? [In my opinion] it would have been a really good (and feminist) statement to have a sex worker as an honorary JCR member”.

Cindy Gallop, former Somerville

student and entrepreneur, famous for her TED talk on attitudes to the porn industry, told the OxStu: “The answer to why this issue has arisen lies in the headline of my open letter to David Cameron and Silicon Valley – “Don't Block Porn, Disrupt It” … I would love to see today's generation of Oxford students, especially those concerned that this motion shames porn actresses and

actors, apply their intellect and brilliance on graduating to disrupting and innovating in the adult industry, and as I say in my letter to David Cameron, ‘turn the British porn industry into something to be proud of".

Others listed as Honorary Members on Teddy's Hall's JCR pag include Tom Cruise, J.K. Rowling, and Ahmed, “kebab-maker extraordinaire.”

IMAGE/ZENNIE ABRAHAM

News 5

19th February 2015

Revealed: How much does your college spend on you?

• An analysis of the amount each college is spending on teaching, research, and accomodation CONOR HAMILTON DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR

An investigation by The Oxford Student has found huge variations in the amount colleges spend on their students.

Topping our ranking is St John’s, which spent more money on the “core activities” of teaching, research and residential services than their entire income.

St John’s spent 110 per cent of its income for the 2012/2013 financial year on their students, compared to a median of 70.1 per cent.

For the purposes of the investigation, we identified “core activities” as those which most directly affect students – most notably teaching, research and residential services.

Yet the average college receives only 43 per cent of its income as a result of tuition fees, government support, grants and other revenue associated with these core activities.

Bottom of the table was Linacre, a graduate college, spending just 47.6 per cent of its income on teaching, research and residential services. Linacre also came joint 33rd out of 36 on the measure of how well colleges subsidised these areas.

Linacre’s President, Nick Brown, said that: “Linacre College is very unusual among Oxford colleges in that no fellow receives a salary for teaching from the college. No fellow is paid a housing or entertainment allowance. As a consequence, we spend much less on “teaching”.”

However, while the total incomes of the colleges rose by 11 per cent during the financial year, expenditure on teaching, research and residential provision rose only 6 per cent.

Due to unusually high donations in 2013 for some colleges (such as Oriel), which inflates income and skews the figure for proportion of income spent on core activities, some data has been used from 2012.

The average (median) college subsidised their expenditure on their core activities by 50 percent. All Souls, another college for graduate students and whose income was derived almost entirely from investments, was able to subsidise their teaching, research and residential services by an eye-watering 1440 per cent.

Our investigation also found that college wealth mattered for more than just bragging rights, with the richer colleges more prepared to subsidise their teaching.

Overall, there was strong positive correlation (Pearson’s, 0.65) between the total assets of a college and the level of their subsidisation for the core activities. This leads to a positive, but slightly weaker, correlation between college wealth and their Norrington table rank.

College accounts also showed increased commercial involvement with third parties, such as hosting conferences and functions, with the income from these commercial activities rising 5 per cent across all colleges. However, due to many colleges engaging with these activities through subsidiary companies, the exact revenue from just conferences and other events could not be seen.

All data is taken from the Charity Commission, the colleges’ financial statements for 2012/2013 and 2011/2012 financial years, and the aggregate college financial statement published by the University. Kellogg and St Cross College do not have Royal Charters, and their accounts are thus bundled into the University’s financial statement.

6 News

19th February 2015

Castle Mill goes to postal vote

• Granted after large section of congregation absent

Students speak out against OUSU • Open letter states that students feel 'patronised' LAURA WHETHERLY NEWS EDITOR

PHOTO/JPB OWEN

JENNIFER LEE

NEWS REPORTER

Despite decisive opposition expressed last week, members of the Oxford University Congregation have called for a postal vote on a motion to remove the top floor of the Castle Mill accommodation complex.

Preceding the meeting last Tuesday, protesters gathered outside the Sheldonian Theatre to chant the message “Save Castle Mill” and distribute leaflets to the Congregation.

After two and a half hours of discussion, the motion was discarded by a vote of 210 (28%) in favor and 536 (72%) against removing the top floor of Castle Mill.

However, because the Congregation, the sovereign body governing Oxford University, is comprised of about 4,500 senior figures, most of whom were not present during the meeting, History Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch and his supporters were able to call the motion to a postal ballot.

The controversy surrounding this vote proceeds from the presence of Castle Mill, the £21.5 million development consisting of 439 units of graduate accommodation on Roger Dudman Way. Oxford City Council, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, and the Save Port Meadow Campaign have repeatedly criticised the planning process for the development on the grounds that the accommodation

blocks are prominently visible from Port Meadow, a designated Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The Oxfordshire Green Party has also called the development a “horrendous blot on our historic landscape”.

Many students, backed by the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU), believe that the proposal seriously undermines the value of Oxford students and university staff.

OUSU President Louis Trup admitted that while “the process that led to construction of the homes was bad,” and that “OUSU will of course want to be a part of ensuring that future consultations are better,” he also stated that “the buildings are no longer just buildings; they are homes.”

Trup said: “We are today dealing with a proposal to prioritize a subjective opinion on aesthetics over painful realities for graduate students, disabled students, students with families, the wider Oxford community, and the values which this body is entrusted to uphold – excellence in education and research.”

Commenting on the move towards a postal vote, David Cesar Heymann, Co-Chair of Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) said: “OULC is disappointed thatfollowing a clear and decisive decision from the Congregation, a small group of people with misguided priorities have decided to prolong the uncertainty for so many students.”

The postal vote is likely to take place within a month and will involve a simple majority. Professor McCulloch who called the vote said: “It may seem like tilting at windmills to call a postal vote after the large numbers against in the debate, but the Castle Mill flats are considerably less picturesque than a windmill. We want all colleagues in the University to have a proper chance to cast a vote.”

Representatives from the Save Port Meadow Campaign agreed.

They said: “Given the huge strength of feeling expressed by so many at Congregation the request for a postal vote seems sensible."

The SPM Campaign said that they welcomed that, “at last the University is prepared to admit publicly that terrible harm has been caused by the building of these flats. Its stance has switched from stubborn silence to expressions of regret and even shame. But however sincere these sentiments are, words are not enough. The proof of its sincerity will be in the detail of what it proposes to put things right.”

Trup, in his speech to the Congregation, said: “Students apply to Oxford, not because they like our skyline, but because they want to live, learn and research amongst the finest thinkers in the world.”

University vice-chancellor Andrew Hamilton has also issued a personal appeal to Congregation members saying: “No university, not even one as beautiful as Oxford, should put buildings before its students.”

Over a hundred students have signed a letter criticising OUSU for their handling of the visit of Marine Le Pen to the Oxford Union.

The letter, published online, states that OUSU Council “covertly and indirectly supported a protest which - as was widely known - was going to be attended by groups which have a history of violence and intimidation”.

The letter particularly criticises OUSU’s response in the wake of the protest, claiming: “a senior OUSU Officer defended an event which put Oxford students in physical and psychological danger”.

Since being published online on the afternoon of 16th February, the letter has been signed by over 200 individuals, mostly students of Oxford University.

Second-year PPE student Jan Nedvídek wrote the original text of the letter. He commented: “For me, OUSU has always been a distant institution, and I’ve never felt the need to get engaged with it. However, after its Council supported an event which put me and many of my friends in physical danger, I felt things had gone a bit too far. Something had to be done.

“If OUSU officers are to represent us as students, they must care about the welfare of all students, regardless of their political views.

“The reason I wrote this letter is that I feel that the majority of Oxford students share my views on freedom of speech and recognise how hugely important it is to our society and our university. I wanted to enable my fellow students who, like me, are outside the official OUSU structures, to express their frustration over the fact that OUSU

Council does not seem to share this view”.

A response to the open letter, written by OUSU President Louis Trup, was published on OUSU’s website later that evening. Within the response, Trup said he was “grateful” for students’ decision to write a letter, and added that he wished to “unequivocally condemn any violence that took place outside the Oxford Union on the 5th February”.

The response went on to note that OUSU had referred to a protest organised by “student groups”, which was separate to the protest organised by UAF going on at the same time.

Trup added: “I strongly believe that OUSU made as much effort as possible to ensure that students on either side remained safe through a warning in advance, asking police to intervene, and by only advertising a protest which did not align itself with groups that could have presented (and clearly did) present a risk to student welfare.

"Please do not hold your student union responsible for the actions of external groups, and do not blame OUSU for the police’s lack of intervention”.

Nikhil Ventakesh, BME Officer for OUSU, was the original proposer of the motion to oppose Le Pen’s visit, and was specifically criticised within the text of the letter.

Ventakesh also published a statement online, saying: “I reiterate that I condemn any violence that might have taken place that day. I make no apology for our motion to OUSU Council standing in solidarity with oppressed groups against Le Pen’s fascist views - a motion that was supported by students from across the political spectrum, and passed by an open and democratic process”.

PHOTO/OOTB Facebook

PHOTO/NASIM ASL

News 7

19th February 2015

Academics sign controversial letter on free speech in university • Students retaliate with accusations that the letter enables transphobic and whorephobic speech LAURA WHETHERLY NEWS EDITOR

» Continued from front page debate. Finally, there’s the disingenuity of some of the signatories, in particular some trans-exclusionary feminists who’ve had little issue with shouting down trans activists in the past are now talking about censorship and silencing.

“I think it’s fairly clear that if there is censorship or undermining of debate going on in universities and the country as a whole, it’s probably not student activists who are responsible for it.”

Dr Hewitt, member of the English faculty and Wolfson College, was one of the signatories. She said: “I signed the letter because I believe that universities have a responsibility to enable their students to develop critical thinking through exposure to a wide range of arguments. Students are certainly not compelled to agree with speakers or opinions they consider objectionable, and have every

right to peacefully protest against them.

“But I believe universities should withstand pressure to prevent all students from encountering views that are are non-libellous and do not incite to physical violence, and are therefore within the realm of legitimate political debate. The letter’s signatories include transgender people and the LGBT rights campaigner Peter Tatchell: it is not ‘trans-exclusionary’ to defend principles of democratic political exchange”.

Rowan Davis, Trans representative for LGTBQ Soc, commented: “Trans people are not a homogeneous group and to use a small number of us to legitimate violence (that is, forcing us to allow bigots into our homes) is instrumentalising and wrong”.

The letter also caused discussion on the Facebook group Cuntry Living, with a thread about the letter receiving over 440 comments from students. One student wrote: “hate this attitude that universities are somehow there to serve the outside world over and above the students

PHOTO/Flickr/shimgray

who go there”.

One of the high-profile individuals who signed the letter was Cambridge Classics professor Mary Beard, who wrote on Twitter that she “went to bed wanting to weep” following the backlash on social media.

Beard particularly noted that “at least one of the examples cited in

such a letter will always be challenged or turn out to be more complicated.

So you have to be clear that the big point transcends any one case”.

She continued: “I feel confident that I am not a transphobe or whorephobe as accused and could provide references to that effect (though I realise that prejudices are not best perceived

by those who hold them)!

“More fundamentally, I think there is something very weird going on if me and Peter Tatchell (never mind the other 130 people) are held up as the enemy of the SW and trans community when (whatever the micro arguments are) we are on the same damned side.”

An open letter from Oxford liberation groups to The Observer signatories • Statement on Oxford academic signatories to the open letter “we cannot allow censorship and silencing of individuals”

The following is a statement sent to The Oxford Student by the OUSU VP for Women on behalf of the signatories and is printed here in full.

On Sunday 15th of February an open letter was released in The Observer calling for an end to what it described as “attempts at intimidation” and “silencing” by students campaigning against trans and sex worker exclusionary activists on university campuses. We as students have a right to decide who is welcome in our homes and the presence of people that see trans and sex workers’ bodies as merely academic talking points rather than as the lived realities of members of our community adds to the discrimination faced by these groups every day. We are not asking that these people be censored and, of course, we do not have the power to censor them. However, we are requesting that they do not voice these damaging views on our campuses and, consequently, in our homes.

The letter claims that the trans and sex worker exclusionary activists in question “have never advocated or engaged in violence against any group of people” and ridicules the idea that the presence of someone who holds these views is “a threat to a protected minority group’s safety”. In doing this, the authors have ignored repeated attempts to demean and disregard the validity of trans and sex worker lives. We believe that it is violence when Germaine Greer announces “I don’t believe in transphobia”, or when Rupert Read describes trans women as “a sort of ‘opt-in’ version of what it is to be a woman”. These are violent acts both in themselves and in their perpetuation of a culture in which

physical and sexual violence against trans people and sex workers is both extremely high - around 22% of sex workers in the UK have experienced an attempted rape (WHO) and around half of trans people have experienced sexual violence (FORGE) - and often ignored - only one in five LGBTQ survivors get help from service providers (NCVC/NCAVP). Julie Bindel’s ‘questioning’ of the validity of trans healthcare is a particularly potent example of this, as it has directly impeded access to life-saving treatments such as hormone therapy which decreases suicidal ideation of trans people from 30% to 8% posttransition (Murad et al., 2010).

Moreover, when Bindel characterises sex workers as living “chaotic, drugabusing lifestyles, controlled by pimps”, she adds to the stigmatisation of the one in twenty students who are sex workers (Evans, Judith 2013).

By mischaracterizing these antitrans and anti-sex worker activists as martyrs for the feminist cause, the Observer letter validates a discourse that makes some peoples’ lived experiences of discrimination into something that is up for debate. This is in the face of the overwhelmingly large platform often given to these minority views, with anti-trans and anti-sex worker feminists appearing in high profile publications such as the New Statesman (Glosswitch / Sarah Ditum) and The Guardian (Julie Bindel) on a regular basis.

In a world that consistently devalues the lives of sex workers and trans people it is unsurprising that this article exists, and we are no way suggesting that the authors do not have the right to believe or publish such things. However, we

PHOTO/WomCam

are particularly disappointed to note that a number of the signatories are academics here at Oxford University.

When we live in a world where only 20% of trans students feel safe on UK campuses (NUS ‘Beyond the Straight and Narrow’) and police invite journalists along to the raids of sex workers’ homes (Guardian 11/12/13), the signing of this open letter sends out a clear message to trans students and students who are in the sex industry that they are unwelcome at Oxford University. Furthermore, as these members of staff are variously involved in student welfare, this letter is particularly worrying as it suggests that student sex workers and students questioning their assigned genders may not receive the care that they deserve from their tutors.

As such, we condemn the open letter and ask all of the signatories who are members of Oxford University to retract their signatures and to make public apologies for adding to the discrimination against sex workers and trans people within our community.

For the full references in this letter, please see the online version of the article.

Anna Bradshaw, Vice-President (Women), Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) Rowan Davis, Trans Representative, OUSU Women’s Campaign & Trans Representative, Oxford University LGBTQ Society Otamere Guobadia, President, Oxford University LGBTQ Society Zuleyka Shahin, Graduate Women’s

Officer, OUSU Jenny Walker, LGBTQ Officer, OUSU Chair of OUSU LGBTQ Campaign Reubs Walsh BA (Oxon), Trans Representative, National Union of Students (NUS) LGBT Campaign Committee Aliya Yule, Women’s Campaign Officer, OUSU OUSU Women’s Campaign Committee Oxford University LGBTQ Society Executive

IMAGE/LGBTQ SOC

19th February 2015

News 8

Former OUSU RO denies association with NUS vote rigging

• No-confidence motion is proposed by former leader of ‘No’ campaign, Jack Matthews • Generating of around 1,400 spare voter codes broke “common practice” of generating only 200 LUKE MINTZ NEWS EDITOR

» Continued from front page to vote ‘No’.

The no-confidence motion proposed for this week’s OUSU Council states that: “As a minimum, Alex Walker’s actions and decisions allowed for the defrauding of the electorate,” and that his continued membership of OUSU would be “harmful to the interests” of the student union.

The motion, proposed by former leader of the ‘No’ campaign Jack Matthews, mentions that Walker generated around 1,400 spare voter codes, when “common practice” is to generate only 200. These voter codes were then used to “systematically rig” the referendum.

The report of the University Proctor into the allegations of vote-rigging has not yet been released, nine months after the event.

The motion also criticises Walker for putting the spare voter codes onto his USB drive, an action described

as “contrary to normal practice”, and one that “raises questions about his commitment to the ballot’s secrecy”.

Additionally, the motion notes that Walker originally directed that only he would be present at the vote count, a ruling again “contrary to normal practice”. The direction was overruled following protest from Jack Matthews, leader of the ‘No’ campaign.

Walker resigned as RO the day after vote rigging revelations emerged, concluding that his position was “no longer tenable”.

Walker condemned the noconfidence motion against him as a “nasty vendetta”, commenting: “It will buy Jack [Matthews] an extra few column inches to support what he is pleased to call his political career. Their motion is factually incorrect, omits vital information, is totally misleading, and most of all, just plain silly.

“I’m not a particular fan of the nauseating Jack Matthews Show, and since my resignation from OUSU I have been better off for its absence. I

will now, like every other student at this university, continue to ignore student politicians like Jack and get on with my life.

“Jack’s existence may, as it has for the last decade, revolve around throwing stroppy tantrums in OUSU; mine most certainly does not.”

Matthews, a postgraduate student and former leader of the Oxford University Conservative Association, defended his decision to propose the no-confidence motion: “Out of respect for the importance of due process, and for the benefit of the welfare of all those involved, I will not be drawn into a trial executed by the Press or by social media.

“This is a matter for Council to decide upon; with the facts being presented, and discussion properly mediated. I wholeheartedly stand by my decision to bring this motion to Council – the place which not only has the right, but the responsibility to make these resolutions so fundamental to the preservation of our democratic system.”

Christ Church student Will

PHOTO/OUSU

Neaverson, who is seconding the noconfidence motion against Walker, accused the former Returning Officer of failing to take “adequate precautions to prevent the malpractice from occurring”, commenting: “We feel something must be done by Council about this huge blemish on our past, and in the absence of proctoral judgement, this must be done through a motion.”

The no-confidence motion came under fire from some active OUSU members, however. Adam Roberts,

former President of Wadham Student Union, described the motion as a “deeply inappropriate” attempt to undermine “due process and justice” and use OUSU Council as a “kangaroo court”.

James Elliot, an active member of the NUS, agreed, commenting: “Expelling students should only ever be an extreme measure. I fully intend to speak against [the motion] in Council.”

The allegations of vote-rigging around last May’s referendum attracted national publicity.

Coroner rules pedestrian fire engine death accidental

• Coroner rules death of Oxford resident struck by fire engine on Cowley Road whilst responding to a call was accidental • Driver of engine said “I did everything in my power to avoid the collision” after resident stepped off a traffic island MATTHEW COULTER DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR

STAFF

A coroner’s inquest has ruled that the death of a woman hit by a fire engine on Cowley Road last year could not have been avoided.

The inquest was held into the death of 79-year old Oxford resident Sultana Begum, who died in the John Radcliffe Hospital in May last year after being hit by the fire engine on a call.

According to the BBC, the driver of the engine, Gavin Carter, said that he applied the brakes when he saw Mrs Begum step out, and told the court that: “I did everything in my power to avoid the collision.”

Witnesses also said that Mrs Begum had stepped off a traffic island into the path of the fire engine.

The inquest took place on 12th February, and was conducted by Editors Deputy Editors Creative Director Online Editor Broadcast Editor News Editors Comment Editors Features Editors Fashion Editors Arts and Lit Editors Music Editors

the coroner, Mr D.M. Salter, at the County Hall in New Road.

A statement by Nathan Travis, Deputy Chief Fire Officer for the Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, said that: “Mrs Begum’s death was a tragic accident and I, on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service, would like to express my deepest sympathy to her family at this difficult time.

“The coroner has confirmed that it was an accident.”

He also added that “What happened was a traumatic experience for the firefighters involved and they have received appropriate support from the Fire and Rescue Service in the time since the accident.”

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Services were unavailable for further comment.

Alys Key and Sachin Croker Nasim Asl, Asya Likhtman, Rupert Tottman, Alice Troy-Donovan and Sid Venkataramakrishnan Thomas Barnett Ed Roberts Nasim Asl Luke Mintz and Laura Whetherly Richard Higson and Hugh McHale Maughan Marcus Li and William Shaw Augustine Cerf and Demie Kim Alice Jaffe and Stephanie Kelley Kate Bickerton and Henry Holmes

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PHOTO/Ron Adams

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We follow the code of practices and conduct outlined by the Press Complaints Commission.

Address complaints to The Editors, 2 Worcester Street, Oxford, OX1

19th February 2015

COMMENT

Comment 9

PHOTO/ Jay Cross

Protest has shamed OUSU, not the Union A s the visit of Marine le Pen to the Union fades into the relative distance, the ideologies of the no-platformers (claiming to act on our behalf through OUSU) must continue to be challenged. It is outdated, indefensible and hypocritical – even more so due to the fact it is espoused in all of our names.

The ineffectiveness of no-platform policies at stopping ideologies they dislike should be fairly clear. They did nothing to stop the rise of the BNP in the 2010 European elections. For all that is made of the 3,000 membership requests that followed Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time, much more should be made of how many people watched the show and realised that the BNP was not a legitimate party of protest. Louis Brandeis was right to call sunlight the best disinfectant; it is only through exposing fascism for what it is – through giving it a platform on which to drown in its own poison – that we can destroy this narrative with a healthy dose of truth.

The first point about no-platform is that it is outdated; it implies an uncritical environment from which you can define the parameters of a debate. This is not an idea that befits a society which will

not host any speaker who does not take questions, nor a world where any media statement can be challenged and debated.

Indeed, the nature of the Le Pen protest created a twofold irony here: any space forfeited by an intimidated questioner could be taken by an unintimidated FN supporter, thereby helping to create an uncritical environment; and it was the protesters that sought to create such an uncritical environment (for themselves) by silencing those who disagree, thereby setting the parameters of ‘acceptable’ debate.

The ideological core of no-platform presupposes that those enacting the policy have a special right to decide what all students are allowed to hear.

The obvious first question, then, is: where does this right come from?

Does it come from being elected by a small minority of students who can be bothered to choose between candidates coming almost exclusively from an ideological hegemony, that cannot possibly represent the student body at large? Does it perhaps come from some peculiar incorruptibility, which ordinary people don’t possess, which means they remain uniquely untainted by the views they censor? The answer to both those questions should surely be a resounding

‘no’. It appears more likely that such policies are justified by bare arrogance and a sense of moral superiority and that those enacting the policy have a unique right not to be offended, which will surely not be extended to anti-noplatformers such as me.

The indefensibility of no-platform is further exposed by the mindset that it seems to induce in its supporters – an absolutism, tarring as “Nazi scum”

Policies of noplatforming are justified by bare arrogance

all those who merely want to hear someone with whom they disagree.

This fundamentally misunderstands why people chose to be there – not to fawn over an idol, but rather to question a popular figure in French politics. This is not simply about the right to free speech, but also about what Christopher Hitchens called the right to listen, and it is this right which hundreds of protesters – with the support of a Student Union claiming to represent all of us – sought fervently to take away. If

they did not want to exercise that right themselves, that’s fine, but they have no right to take away others’ rights to listen simply because they disagree with who is being heard. The right to protest is fundamental in any free society – we must be able to air our disagreements as publicly as possible – but this does not entail freedom to intimidate and injure those with whom you disagree, and to shut down the free speech of others by any and all means.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that such policies are enforced through coercion of those who disagree. The protest outside the Union offered a chilling glimpse of this: students were physically blocked from entering a space they had a contractual right to enter, simply to listen to a speaker with whom they might also disagree. Those who did manage to enter had their safety put in jeopardy by allegedly armed men in balaclavas breaching the security of the Union. Ironically, several students supporting the protest did so allegedly to create a ‘safe space’ in Oxford.

Which is more likely to threaten safety: the words of a politician who can be ignored, or balaclava-clad men seeking to injure those who don’t support their no-platform ideology? It was hard to

DAVID BROWNE

Merton College disagree with a speaker at the debate we had while stuck in the chamber – on the motion ‘This House Has Sympathy for the Protestors’ – that those wishing to bully, intimidate and even injure people for disagreeing with them seem to have forgotten where fascism begins. This is clear hypocrisy; speech is not free if we would not extend the same right to speak which we wish to enjoy to our opponents. Where is any pretence of universal human rights if we will not defend the rights of those whom we dislike?

Perhaps the most damning thing here was that OUSU’s decision – taken allegedly in all our names – had a mere forty votes (not even from forty people) cast in its favour. It is little wonder that the state of student politics is so moribund, and the reputation of students so bad, when these are the decisions taken in our name. To such people I say four words: not in my name. To those who agree and feel unrepresented: speak out, not to the establishment structures which won’t even give you a vote if you bother to engage with them, but to the nation at large. We may not be able to stop our OUSU reps from claiming to act in our name, but we can certainly demonstrate that they do not.

19th February 2015

10 Comment

It’s war, but not as we know it

D

espite the violence we all see on TV, we live in a remarkably peaceful age. The global economy is more integrated than ever before, and major wars between states are rare. Though it is dangerous to guarantee anything in international relations, the prospect of a global conflict seems more distant than at any point in the last century.

However, despite a long-term decline in violence, the world has become a more violent place over the past seven years.

We now face a new sort of conflict, not between states, but within them. These are conflicts that our international institutions, the UN in particular, are poorly equipped to manage.

In the last year, Syria, Sudan, Nigeria, Iraq and Afghanistan have all seen six-figure death tolls from violence.

Thousands more lives have been lost in the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, the Central African Republic, Yemen, and Mexico. In contrast, the largest truly inter-state conflict is the ongoing confrontation in the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan, which – since the devastating Kargil War in 1999 – has largely become a series of tit-fortat artillery and small-arm skirmishes.

International wars no longer pose a huge threat to global peace, but structural flaws in the governments of less developed states, and the difficulties of addressing this new sort of conflict have

PHOTO/Christiaan Triebert

SID Venkataramakrishnan

Pembroke College

W

hen the Aam Aadmi – Common Man’s – Party first stepped in to politics, you’d have been tempted to laugh at their prospects. An anti-corruption party, with no experience of governance, taking on the established big guns of Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), seemed unlikely to make headway in the quagmire-cum-minefield of Indian politics. Yet in the 2013 Delhi Legislative elections, they ended up as the second largest party behind the BJP. Choosing to side with the Congress Party, they enjoyed less than two months in power before quitting in protest at the political system. In the 2014 general elections, they secured around only two per cent of the vote and thus failed to win any seats.

The scale of their victory earlier this month was thus shocking. Having previously hit 28 seats out of 70, the AAP swept to power with 67 this time. If protest parties need a role model, this is it.

The beginnings of the AAP were with the anti-corruption campaigns of Anna Hazare. A former soldier turned activist, he shot to prominence in 2011 after a hunger strike to fight for anti-corruption legislature, the Jan Lokpal Bill. Mass protests followed, but – as is too often the case in India – they failed to achieve their aims. Out of this turmoil, Arvind Kejriwal, a former member of Hazare’s team, split off to form the AAP in 2012.

CASON REILY

Trinity College

been exposed. We cannot, as has often been done, continue to apply the broadbrush ‘Clash of Civilizations’ narrative to these conflicts, but seek to understand each conflict in its own specific political context.

Consider Syria. The news still tends to portray the conflict in terms of the despotic dictator, the Islamic Extremists, and the ‘moderate rebels,’ our supposedly

conflict cannot be simplified down to ‘Islam vs liberalism’. Any sort of resolution must recognise that the deep-seated antagonisms within Syrian society cannot be solved overnight.

The current conflict in Ukraine is often cast as a fault-line conflict between the liberal Western and authoritarian, orthodox Russian systems. This narrative explains the behaviour of the EU, the US,

democracy-loving secularists. This sort of reduction both obscures the true nature of the conflict, and the potential for solution. The conflict arises not simply out of the Arab Spring, or a one-dimensional struggle against a despot, but from Syria’s complex political history. From 1971 to 2000, Hafez al-Assad held a tight grip on power, carefully manipulating domestic and regional affairs. Since his death, his son, Bashar, continued to fill the same role, maintaining a delicate, but stable, balance which established the minority Alawite group, to which the al-Assads belong, at the head of the state and security apparatus. With the advent of the Arab Spring, the tension suppressed by the Assads’ policies has been unleashed, and the regime was attacked by the under-represented, both extreme and liberal. What must be recognized is that the story is not one of progressive, liberal, Western values clashing with repressive Islamic ones, but of political antagonisms bred over time. The Assad regime is certainly repressive, but it is at least on paper a secular, nationalist regime rather than an Islamist one; this

and Russia, but cannot alone account for the continuing disruption and violence committed by and against Ukrainian citizens. This ignores the importance of economic, political, and cultural rifts within Ukraine. The ethnic Russian population in the Donbass region had lower birth rates, higher incomes, and a more industrialised economy than the rest of the nation. Victor Yanukovych, President until his removal from office last year, was elected primarily by voters from the south and east of the country. Many of these people have felt disenfranchised by Yanukovych’s removal and subsequent replacement

by Petro Poroshenko, who was elected primarily by the north and west. As of yet, the new government in Kiev has failed to give the pro-Russian militant groups in the east any good reason to cease their violence and end the conflict. Russian involvement complicated the conflict, but we cannot ignore the fact that many people in the Donbass region have serious grievances with the government in Kiev.

Both of these conflicts show the prob-

lems with the current system of global governance – the UN in particular – which are structured to settle old fashioned interstate conflicts. Bringing the Afghan government and the Taliban, ISIS and Iraq, or Nigeria and Boko Haram to the negotiating table and attempting to fashion a peace treaty is fruitless. The problem with the traditional methodology used by world powers is that it focuses on what the politics of conflicts mean to us, not to the groups involved. In doing so, there is nothing we have to offer the groups behind the current violence across the globe.

What is required, and what might work, is recognising that rather than treating these conflicts as part of an over-arching global conflict, they must be approached as the domestic political problems they are. Iraq, Nigeria, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and many other nations have political institutions illequipped to deal with the internal conflicts they face. In order to end these conflicts, we cannot merely depend on the ‘inevitable’ triumph of liberalism or democracy, but offer support to these institutions so that conflict can be resolved and contained internally. Antagonistic factions must be enfranchised and neutralised through good governance.

This will prove easier in some cases than others (it will be particularly hard to achieve an acceptable balance of power in Syria), but it is the only way. Brute force destruction of rebel groups, or international treaties and accords cannot produce a sustainable peace: they only treat symptoms. Creating lasting peace in the modern age requires a greater understanding of the internal conflicts within states, not between them.

were not a referendum on the BJP’s term in power, they are a reminder that the Modi wave which the BJP rode in on last General Election is not unstoppable.

Even committed BJP supporters within my family have been rather stunned, questioning just how the party got it so wrong in Delhi. The BJP’s decision to parachute in Kiran Bedi, for example, was seen as little more than an attempt to counter Kejriwal’s credentials with a celebrity. Such conspicuous attempts to use star power – Bedi is India’s first female police officer and a noted social activist – have also led to accusations that the BJP is ignoring grassroots campaigners and local activists. These are the very groups which the AAP had worked with so successfully, cultivating its everyman image in direct opposition to the highprofile, big money campaigns of its opponents. Modi’s government, facing a non-localist, non-Congress opponent, seems to be seeing first-hand that being in power is not all plain sailing.

What does it mean for India? Despite the rhetoric from some quarters – notably the far-right nationalist Shiv Sena – that the BJP has been reduced to “dirt”, this is hardly a harbinger of the party’s imminent collapse. Instead, however, we are likely to see shifts in policy to appease voters. The change in stance towards Pakistan by the BJP – who had broken off dialogue last year

over Pakistan’s continuing talks with Kashmiri insurgents – is potentially an attempt to create a softer narrative. It’s had some effect: 172 Indian fishermen were released following conversations between Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, though several hundred still remain imprisoned.

Yet, as the Assam elections have shown, the BJP’s popularity remains strong outside the National Capital Region. With talk of moving into the

southern states, particularly Tamil Nadu – where two regional parties have taken turns running down the state since 1971 – the loss at Delhi, no matter how spectacular it is, is unlikely to halt the saffron party’s progress.

The AAP will, hopefully, continue the progress they made in 2013, and force the BJP and other parties to up the ante if they want to keep their seats at the next election. For now, though, they’ll just have to be content with Delhi.

We cannot depend on the ‘inevitable’ triumph of liberalism

A victory for the common man?

The margin of victory is particularly notable considering the brevity of their previous stint in power. Their 49 days in power had earned them the epithet bhagora (quitter) from the BJP in the run-up to the elections: a campaign which went on to backfire spectacularly. In their short space of time in government, the AAP got stuck into tackling low-level corruption, particularly amongst the police force and local officials, and subsidised electricity and water supplies. Kejriwal’s advice to citizens to film police abuse struck a particular chord with citizens who had often felt powerless, though contributed to the rocky relationship between the party and security forces.

Despite a rather inelegant departure from power – including a senior AAP member being accused of racism and sexism – the margin of success suggests that few in Delhi were too disappointed with their tenure, no matter how short it was.

On the flip side, their win might just point to the dissatisfaction with mainstream politics. Although the BJP secured a not inconsiderable 32.2 per cent of the vote, this translated into just 3 seats – a staggering loss of 28. Despite sweeping the state of Assam – formerly a Congress stronghold – in municipal elections, the Indian media is buzzing with talk of the BJP’s bruising at the hands of Kejriwal’s underdogs.

Whilst it’s true that the Delhi elections

PHOTO/ThinkingYouth

19th February 2015

Collections, what’s the point?

L

ast year, during my muchawaited Christmas vac break, I saw a Facebook status which really hit home. A fellow fresher had posted, twinned with a “feeling frustrated” emoji, the following words: “I don’t quite understand what vacation stands for, in Oxford terms – it surely must stand for the action of vacating our rooms, rather than the ‘holiday’ synonym we think it carries”.

A Twitter newsfeed littered with swearing at “my Michaelmas, non note-taking self”, and expressions of sourness and despair at the approaching term confirmed that this thinking was anything but confined to a singular individual. It was a shared pain, which lessened the excitement of coming back to see college friends, and the prospect

of another two months of “so bad it’s good” clubbing. I can’t think of anything other than the awful start-of-term collections, looming ahead of us term after term, which could have motivated such a bitter general consensus.

I’m halfway through my degree, and I still don’t understand exactly what collections are meant to help us in, and just what kind of aim they fulfil. I could, perhaps, begin to comprehend that they are a good way to assess continuously if you are a science student, who sadly has to cope with yearly exams. I can understand how they could help for specific preparation for those who are, instead, taking a specific paper in second year – psychology, for example, springs to mind.

But even in these cases, I strug-

gle to comprehend why we must march to dining halls, gown-clad, at the beginning of each term, to sit papers we’ve barely revised for, and panicked about for the entire six week break. Oxford takes great pleasure in pressurising us all to the extreme – I once had a friend comment that she thought the only reason it was so demanding was not

At least end-of-term exams would make some sort of sense so much the tutorial system, but rather the fact that the workload had been squeezed into an eight week term, rather than a ten or twelve week one they have at other universities. I dismissed it at the time, but now can’t help thinking

CARTOON/Harriet Bourhill

SAM BURNE JAMES

Christ Church

I

t’s archaic, unfair, unnecessary, elitist and offensive, and the University should put a stop to it, some argue. Depending on what headline has been put above this piece, there’s a fair chance you won’t have guessed what I’m talking about. To be fair, Oxford has quite a few things that would fit the description: the gender gap at finals? The disparity between colleges’ resources? Sub fusc, perhaps? Or drinking societies? Fit College, maybe?

No, none of the above; I’m talking about the Oxford Master of Arts degree, the scheme by which once 21 terms (that’s seven years, fellow hu-

cess, continuous sets of exams on a termly basis end up being accepted as ordinary. I am yet to hear of someone whose collections performance has effectively influenced their exam performance, challenging the idea they are meant to be ‘mock examinations’. I know of finalists who scored 25 per cent in papers weeks before obtaining a First, and of others who didn’t turn in a collection paper at all, worried about it for weeks, and never even had their papers given back to them. A friend at another college told me that her course, straight German, allowed her to avoid collections completely – a decision made not by her tutor, but by a Dean from a college she was taught in, in an attempt to help her structure her own time better and plan for the term ahead. People don’t seem to care about them (perhaps tutors less than anyone). If this is the case, I struggle to see exactly what motivation lies in having to revise

CAROLINA BAX

St Hilda’s College for them. Why must we spend time on material dealt with in the past term instead of getting on with our reading lists and problem sheets?

Had we but world enough and time, Oxford would probably not hesitate in setting end of term exams, either – but at least an end of term evaluation would make some sort of sense, acting as a general revision aid over the term’s work.

I continue to hope that vacation work could be the solution to collections – especially if you don’t have exams, the entire concept of mock assessments is somewhat redundant. My college doesn’t believe in making historians sit collections, but instead assigns them an extended essay over the vac. Isn’t this a rational solution – to have a piece of work to effectively read about and work on, in the knowledge it will be discussed upon our returns, and marked only after we have had enough time to work on it for it to be a decent piece of work.

This seems preferable to a rushed three hour paper, surrounded by the entire college body. It’s laughable to think that this kind of assessment is in any way going to help in academic development – which is precisely why collections are continuously dismissed with “they don’t count”. Intellectual stimulation and continuous assessment can go hand in hand, and vacation work could solve this.

But then again, as time goes by, I’m beginning to think that perhaps the concept of loosening the pressure on us as students is simply

Degrees should be earned, not bought

reads.

If not an upgrade, what does that new status actually mean? Until 2002, that new status allowed you voting rights in elections for Oxford’s chancellor and its Professor of Poetry. Nowadays, all graduates get those powers and as such, the MA is essentially just a prize for not having died yet. Hooray.

Of course, having an MA might lend you an advantage – an unfair one, it scarcely merits saying – in the job market, as various studies show that many employers don’t know that the Oxford MA (nor for that matter its Cambridge equivalent) is not an earned degree. It

The degree itself is pretty close to meaningless manities students) have passed since their matriculation, holders of Bachelors of Arts or Fine Arts degrees can take their MA. The word ‘take’ pretty much sums up the process – you pay £10, and, err... that’s it. It seems an attractive chance for an upgrade, on the face of it – except as the websites of various colleges make clear, that’s not the right way of looking at it. “Please note the Oxford MA is about reaching a new status within the university and not an upgrade of your BA or an additional qualification,” the warning

there was underlying truth in her remark.

In a university experience where it becomes normal to have up to eight hours of lectures a day, run from college to department to lecture hall attempting to keep up with contact hours, and effectively decide to either give up one’s social life, sleep pattern or academic suc-

Comment 11

might allow you greater social status, depending on the circles in which you move, or perhaps cheaper car insurance, I don’t know. It might just make you happy and give you a good day out should you choose to attend your ceremony. And to be honest, a bit of pomp, circumstance and a new accolade does seem somewhat attractive.

The 21-term mark arrived last summer for me. I was roughly aware that it was due at some point, but I rather expected my college to approach me and offer the MA – perhaps alongside

the request to donate some money to the college. That didn’t happen, and in the event I emailed the college, was told who I needed to get in touch with, and the whole process felt rather dull and lacking in either pomp or circumstance.

I didn’t go through with it.

There’s nothing inherently bad about the Oxford MA – surely employers who don’t check out what your qualifications mean have nobody but themselves to blame when they find out their exciting new mid-20s Oxonian hire only really has a BA. No two degrees are ever equal anyway, and no one can seriously imagine that they are, or could be, or should be. If you earned a Masters through doing actual work and you feel offended by someone taking what is acknowledged to be an empty degree then, quite frankly, grow up.

The degree itself is pretty close to meaningless, and on that grounds, I’d probably vote for its abolition if asked.

Not that it’s on the cards; although the university does come under periodic pressure to abolish the MA arrangement, a member of its media team told me it has “no current plans to review it”. I was also told that with the MA handled individually by colleges, there is nothing in the way of statistics for its uptake.

Among my contemporaries, I’m not aware of anyone who has taken the

PHOTO/Holly Hayes

MA. I tried to do a straw poll of friends to find out if any had, but most of them turned out to be scientists, sadly. I say sadly purely because that meant that they had all gotten Masters Degrees through doing actual work (that old chestnut) and therefore were not useful for my survey.

Then a historian friend, and avowed lefty, messaged me. “I’m tempted to be bolshy and say pish to outmoded, unfair Oxbridge toffee-nosed tradi-

tion. But there is also,” he said, “the temptation whispering in my ear to add more letters to my name to make me feel superior to the man on the Clapham omnibus, who only has a BA from Bristol.” For all my protestations, I must admit I actually feel the same. You can take us away from Oxford, but you can’t take that love-hate relationship with this grand, bizarre, frustrating, wonderful institution away from us.

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19th February 2015

MUSIC

Miriam Jones brings Americana to Oxford O

xford’s always been a multicultural city – people here often have odd roots, and Miriam Jones’s are some of the oddest. Her American parents moved to Canada when she was a child, then ended up in Oxford via Vancouver, Nashville and Papua New Guinea. From all this, she’s developed a unique voice, finding her niche in Americana. She’s about to release her fourth album, Between Green and Gone, a collection of soulful, expansive stories in song form.

The melancholy pining of her music is somewhat at odds with the cheerful optimism that pervades her outlook on life, musical and otherwise. Within this, too, there’s a strong sense of selfconfidence seen when she reflects on her unusual upbringing: “I think probably one of the things that the moving around did was not plant me in one sphere of influence musically. I spent a lot of time on my own and just exploring my own voice and so it’s now later in life that I’m becoming aware of some of the people who people suggest that I sound like; a lot of them I’ve barely heard of - I didn’t listen to a lot of different kinds

of music so it’s nice having the pleasure of discovering things in retrospect. I suppose that that can come from not being completely rooted in one spot and surrounded by a certain culture of music.”

I ask her again about influences and she doesn’t give too much away: “I don’t listen to very much - I’ll really fall in love with something and just listen to it for like forever… I suppose when I was learning to sing and playing around in Canada, Sarah McLachlan was really famous over there. A lot of people know who she is over here but she definitely stood out as someone with an incredible voice and a really gifted songwriter as well. So she probably influenced me, although I don’t think I sound anything like her, and I definitely don’t have her vocal skills - she was trained as an opera singer.”

It’s clear that Canada is Jones’ spiritual home, and is where she developed as a songwriter, but talks with contentedness about her move to the UK: “I love Canada but it’s a difficult place sometimes to do something like music because it’s so massive. In terms of big

city centres there aren’t that many and where there are, they’re so far apart.

So to do a road trip in the summer of festivals is doable if you can get the attention and actually get the gigs but it’s not actually that easy to do so.”

Contrary to the cynicism seen in a lot of places about the state of the British music scene, Jones is very positive: “I love a lot of the music coming out of the UK and having been here for a while now I definitely feel, with everything being so close together, there’s a lot of cross-pollinating; word gets around faster and there’s a social energy that I hadn’t felt in Western Canada. I think there’s an intensity here about everything that makes it hard sometimes to adjust, y’know, because I’m not from a very intense place but it’s been really good for creativity, it’s a little bit of a pressure cooker…

I suppose it’s a big thing to move to a different culture and there’s lots of adjustment and that’s always a good fodder for songwriting - and being away from my family so all those tensions. They kind of lend themselves to creative stuff.”

Her previous album, Fire Lives,

was recorded entirely in her home in Marston, which led to a fuzzy warmth that has both its benefits and drawbacks: “I think a lot of stuff can be done these days and it does allow people to experiment and really try different things without having to find much money to do it. I found it does have its limitations, so for this album I tried to raise the money so I could actually go into the studio.” While hers is one of the successes in the great surge in alternate methods of making music

Music 3

HENRY HOLMES

Wadham College cessful with getting help and finding interesting ways of engaging with fans; I know I’ve been very blessed in that way as well - people all wanting to help me get this album made and to do it at a high quality. But I’m really really glad I went a bit beyond this time and that it took longer. I had to be more patient, a bit more thoughtful about it, but I think it’s definitely paid off.”

I’d very much agree it did. Between Green and Gone is an excellent album.

Jones is playing an album release show on 25th February at The Wheat

“I love a lot of the music coming out of the UK... there’s a social energy that I hadn’t felt in Western Canada” nowadays, she isn’t entirely convinced of it: “I think it’s difficult these days because it’s hard to know when you should make that leap and push to do something beyond the home studio. I think it can be worth doing but it takes a lot of work to track down the funds.

I think a lot of people have been suc-

Sheaf that comes highly recommended from us at OxStu towers. Testament to her whirlwind upbringing, she breathes life into a genre rooted in tradition and as such is one of the strongest players in Oxford’s local music scene, and as she’s starting to get national press attention, her prospects are deservedly rising rapidly.

PHOTO/EVANS ABOVE PR

19th February 2015

4 Music

Prepare to be dazzled by early music’s rising stars K

PHOTO/MARCO BORGGREVE PR

eble College Early Music Festival returns for its second year from 25th February to 1st March to present seven exciting concerts. The line-up consists of a mix of free concerts given by collegebased musicians and professional recitals given by world-renowned artists from the early music scene, mostly based in the atmospheric surroundings of Keble College Chapel.

By focussing on the performance of the music rather than its historical context, this festival hopes to bring a fresh perspective to a genre that is often negatively received.

For some, the label ‘early music’ is an instant turn off. Yet the blanket term incorporates music from a diverse range of styles, countries and centuries, played by many different instruments. There is something to appeal to everyone.

James Hardie, the festival’s founder and third-year music student and organ scholar at Keble, makes a strong case for fellow students to give this music a chance. By securing Mahan Esfahani, Early Music’s hottest ticket, as the festival’s patron, Hardie clearly demonstrates that this genre is not stuck in the past.

The dynamic harpsichordist has already revolutionised the genre during his short career so far, and his involvement brings a wealth of interest to the festival. The concert series is dedicated to showcasing the enthusiasm of young artists involved

in early music, giving vitality to a style that is often associated with older generations.

Hardie believes that there is a gap in the Oxford musical scene for a festival that focuses purely on the performance of music from this era.

Emphasis is placed on engaging live performances rather than academic stuffiness. This is in keeping with his belief that “you have to grab people with the music first” before introducing them to the historical context.

This accounts for the lack of preperformance talks and accompanying masterclasses in the festival’s line-up - as Hardie explains, there is already ample opportunity for these types of events in Oxford.

Oxford is the natural setting for a festival that focuses on the performance of early music, as the connections between the city and the professional artists performing in the festival prove. Esfahani was a former artist in residence at New College and is now a patron of Keble College, while many of the members of The Marion Consort were choral scholars at Oxford.

The chance for current Oxford choral scholars to witness the success of former students will surely be a source of inspiration for them to pursue careers in this area. Yet the music provided by Keble’s chapel choir is already of professional standard, and audiences have two opportunities to hear the choir in action during the

There’s a lot to love about No Cities To Love

A

long with the tumultuous excitement that came with news of Sleater-Kinney’s reunion after a nearly ten year long break from making music, there was a small but undying part of me that didn’t want the band to reform. Ultimately, there was a sense of fear, a fear of listening to any new material that might tarnish the bands already incredible discography.

Sleater-Kinney were the unmitigated champions of the indie and punk rock scene that brought indie rock to popular attention and critical acclaim in the 90’s and early 2000’s. They possessed a fiery punk, feminist and political aesthetic that naturally seemed to spawn from, but at the same time eclipse, the feminist punk movement Riot Grrrl. The raw, visceral style created by Carrie Brownstein’s urgent guitar riffs, Janet Weiss’ aggressive, but technically adept drumming and Corin Tucker’s wailing and shrieking vocals came to full fruition in their last album The Woods.

Since their reformation, the band seems aware of the mammoth task of living up to expectations and past selves. ‘Hey Darling’ one of the tracks from No Cities to Love, the band’s first album to come out of their reunion, is incredibly self-aware, proclaiming: “It seems to me

the only thing/That comes from fame is mediocrity”. But with regards to No Cities to Love, I had no reason to worry about Sleater-Kinney’s “mediocrity”. The album sees the band move away from the ferocious sound created on The Woods towards a cleaner and simpler sound.

This change in style only brings the band up to date, sounding more modern and sophisticated than ever.

Even with this change of sound, No Cities to Love sees Sleater-Kinney continuing their tradition of focusing on

complex political subject matter. The opening track of the album, ‘Price Tag’, sees Corin Tucker singing about an emotionally charged experience of motherhood. Yet, the song focuses more widely on the difficulties of working dead-end jobs in this current economic climate whilst also raising a family. Like the change in sound, Sleater-Kinney’s focus on current issues keeps them relevant, a difficult task for a band whose career has spanned over twenty years.

On first listen the title track of the al-

bum appears to be the least hard-hitting of the whole album, especially compared to the band’s earlier work. The fierce harmonies of the vocals make this track, made more powerful when coupled with a catchy guitar riff making an unforgettable chorus. However, even this track has more subtle nuances, exploring the modern preoccupation with romanticising specific places to escape the realities of city life.

‘No Anthems’ has a darker, grittier feel, rising from distorted guitar sounds and a

PHOTO/ BRIGITTE SIRE

CHARLOTTE PARR

Jesus College

festival.

When pressed to select two highlights of the festival for newcomers to early music, it is no surprise that Hardie was quick to choose Esfahani’s recital. The harpsichord recital, featuring music by Gibbons, Bach, Couperin and Scarlatti, will no doubt be lively and demonstrate why he was named the winner of the Gramophone Award for Best Baroque Instrumental Album 2014 and awarded the Diapason d’Or. The other highlight shows early music’s earthier side: madrigal group Ye Fyne Dogges will be performing a selection of bawdy songs in Keble College Bar. The relaxed setting of this free concert will encourage musicians and audience members to enjoy the music with a pint in hand.

Madrigals are not widely performed except by dedicated groups, meaning that the music’s appeal of blurring distinctions between high and low art remains relatively unknown.

Hardie assures me that the concert will be “shockingly disgusting and quite funny,” and that it will be a great opening into the world of early music.

With such a range of engaging concerts on offer, Keble College Early Music Festival is bound to be a resounding success. Although Hardie might not be in Oxford next year to oversee the 2016 festival, hopefully Keble College will ensure that the festival continues to flourish.

NAOMI SOUTHWELL

Somerville College distinctly sultry tone in Corin Tucker’s voice. The band has since talked about the lack of artists in indie-rock that continued where Sleater-Kinney left off when the band dissolved in 2006, with Janet Weiss more specifically commenting on the “lack of urgency” in modern music in an interview with PBS. With lyrics like “But now there are no anthems/ All I can hear is the echo, and the ring”, ‘No Anthems’ is a desperate cry for a meaningful, relatable anthem in today’s music. However, it seems that 2015 will be the year this cry is heard, with bands such as Girl Pool, Slutever, Perfect Pussy, Skinny Girl Diet and Cherry Glazerr creating waves in the music world, tackling feminist issues with their music in an almost Riot Grrrl-esque resurgence.

Sleater-Kinney’s reunion was perhaps a bold move in an age where band reunions often seem like a fast solution for artists strapped for cash. However, Sleater-Kinney achieves this difficult task of a reunion, and more besides. Having previously inspired a generation of musicians to make passionately charged indie rock music, Sleater Kinney is once again part of a movement that seems stronger than ever and more charged.

Music 5

19th February 2015

Song Against Six OxStu’s 6th Week Playlist

Happy House Siouxsie & The Banshees Polydor Records

Mrs. Jones Hole Caroline Records

Duck! Troyka handles Ornithophobia badly E xperimental jazz trio Troyka’s latest album (its name inspired by guitarist Chris Montague’s real fear of birds, and gesturing towards Charlie Parker’s similarly named ‘Ornithology’) seems in many ways a logical progression from their 2012 album Moxxy. With contorted time signatures and fast, almost brusque transitions between melodic and textural motifs, Ornithophobia works within a similar model to Moxxy, only it’s more hard-edged, more industrial. It also fits really quite well alongside the likes of Roller Trio and Apes Grapes into what is currently a very vibrant and exciting young British jazz scene. Troyka is an organ trio, but of no common sort – Kit Downes (keyboards) goes a long way to sketching out new possibilities for the jazz Hammond organ, which has been somewhat neglected of late, placing its sonic qualities firmly at the centre of a modern and very forward-looking ensemble.

Perhaps where the album diverges most from other similar offerings is in its subtle, chameleon-like absorption of a rather wider array of other genres than normal. Certainly we are used to the almost tongue-in-cheek playful melodies of earlier Polar Bear albums, but drummer Josh Blackmore’s fleeting

“W

Tonight Sibylle Baier Orange Twin Records

references to hip-hop style grooves in the opening of ‘Magpies’ or the wider, textural resemblance in parts of ‘Life Was Transient’ and ‘Bamburgh’ to electronica is refreshing and highly engaging.

However, it is impossible for me to speak more generally about atmosphere of texture with regards to each song.

Indeed, Ornithophobia is almost pathologically unstable in a way that can at times be exhausting. Repeated melodic motifs, often led by Montague (sometimes at the expense of Downes’s sensitive Hammond organ work), give way to each other frequently; they are small underexplored vignettes that leave the listener searching for some aesthetic unity.

Perhaps we cannot specifically blame Troyka’s efforts here but rather look to contemporary jazz’s ongoing search for a form that reconciles thematic variety with space for improvisation, which must always be considered essential to the genre. Sometimes Ornithophobia’s frenetic, John Zorn-esque instability comes at the expense of more thoughtful showcasing of each of these incredibly talented instrumentalists’ solo skills.

Moments where space is given for these, like Montague’s solo in ‘The General’, are very satisfying and leave one slightly frustrated that we don’t get more of it.

This isn’t, however, to downplay the real ensemble skills Troyka exhibit. At

Wadham College the beginning of the album, the pulsing and initially expansive theme of ‘Arcade’, really exemplifies a band where each member’s offerings only serve to further extend the others’. Perhaps on occasion this level of synchronicity becomes almost robotic; it feels sometimes like Troyka really believe in the sort of post-apocalyptic cityscape described in the public service broadcast opening to ‘Thopter’ (aren’t we reaching the point where this sort of faux news anchor intervention is beocoming passé?).

The world described in ‘Thopter’, of a London consumed by a gruesome avianoriginated epidemic, ultimately shows a band gesturing beyond the specific achievements of their album. For all the postmodern rhetoric, Ornithophobia seems only a moderate jump from other contemporary jazz, making crucial but ultimately modest deviations from the easy formula of contrasting motifs, difficult time signatures and extended tonalities that characterises British jazz at the moment. I look forward to a jazz that does take on the hybrid, part-man part-bird image that Troyka imagine – something fresh and really destabilising.

For now, Troyka perhaps show us an idea of where things can go, but they’re not there yet.

ARE AWARDS SHOWS STILL RELEVANT? HENRY HOLMES

Tyjna Nu Sensae Suicide Squeeze Records

PHOTO/ POMONA

MERLIN GABLE

YES

ho is Beck?”, the internet cried the night of the Grammys.

Beyoncé’s utter gamechanger of a fifth album seemed a dead cert to win Album of the Year, especially given her competition seemed practically null in the category; Beck’s nomination for Morning Phase seemed like a mere nod to his extensive musical career. But then he won.

In a world where Macklemore has won more Grammys than Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Nas, DMX, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Mos Def, Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Ja Rule, and Kendrick Lamar combined, it’s basically impossible to deny that the Grammys have a race problem.

Approximately half of all nominations have been awarded to white men historically, with white women and black people of any gender each receiving about 20 per cent each. While Beyoncé does seem like the greater achievement as an album, it’s impossible to deny the talent that went into making Morning Phase. Songs such as ‘Blue Moon’ (also nominated for Best Rock Performance – another category where all five nominees were white men) are undeniably outstanding musical triumphs.

Beyoncé didn’t go home empty handed that night, winning three awards to add to her previous collection of 17. While she may have deserved that particular award, she’s not snubbed in the way that other, more subversive artists such as FKA Twigs, Against Me! and Perfume Genius are, but then again, these awards have never been there for the underground artist – they’re where major record companies can toast each others’ achievements; spectacles to show the side of the music industry that it specifically wants to show to the public. If anything, it’s quite useful that there’s a specific actualisation of the music industry’s failings and explicit biases.

Either way, the Grammys are not where one should turn to discover music. Certain established awards such as the Mercury Prize, The NME Awards and BBC Sound of… do seem to make a positive difference.

Admittedly, they do have their failings (does anybody remember who Michael Kiwanuka is?), but they have allowed artists such as Young Fathers, Alt-J and Eagulls a boost of publicity that did help them. There are a lot of issues with these awards shows in terms of race, gender and genre, but those come from issues from the music industry and society at large, rather than being endemic of the shows themselves.

“W

NO

NAOMI SOUTHWELL

ho gives a fuck about a goddamn Grammy?”, Chuck D once rapped. When Chuck D spat out that now infamous lyric, it was in response to the Grammy’s refusal to recognise rap within the award categories. Even today, its hard to argue that the Grammy’s are in touch with the nuances of the genre when the category of “Best Rap Song” still reads as a list of rap songs that are the least threatening to white people.

This year Kendrick Lamar won ‘Best Rap Song’ for his track ‘I’ which is arguably one of Kendrick’s least recognisably “rap” songs of his entire career. The song has pop, funk and soul influences running throughout but its hardly a hard hitting rap song. If Kendrick had released his latest tour de force of a song, ‘The Blacker The Berry’ an intensely complex, angry and bitter reflective rap track, in time for this year’s nominations, would this track have won a Grammy? Would Kendrick have even been nominated with this song? I highly doubt it.

If the Grammys still fail to recognise astounding achievements within various genres, including rap and hip-hop, do the awards have any relevance for music fans? Compared to seeing your favourite artist give an outstanding live performance, or being moved or challenged by the lyrics of their latest album or single, sitting at home watching them receive an award in a pristine and calculated awards ceremony hardly ranks as one of the cumulative experiences that define your love for a musician’s life work.

Critics of the Grammys often lament its now singular role as a method of boosting record sales. But I would argue it isn’t even relevant in this arena anymore. Admittedly “Grammy award winning artist” will add a nice few seconds on to the latest advert for Sam Smith’s album, but is that really going to motivate consumers to buy an album they have previously not parted the cash for? When people can listen to an artist’s entire discography for free on websites like Spotify, its hardly the Grammys that are going to remedy this problem and encourage more people to buy hard physical copies, or even pay for downloads, of tracks by their favourite artists. If the Grammys aren’t even relevant in a role for which they are often chastised, it seems hard to argue for their relevance to the wider music industry and for music fans alike.

6 Screen

SCREEN

19th February 2015

PHOTO/Summit Entertainment

Where are the movies of the Iraq War? W

ar has been a staple of the cinema since its very earliest days. Indeed, it was with the controversial war film, The Birth of a Nation (1915), that D. W. Griffith pioneered the basic cinematic vocabulary that established the first set of parameters for all future filmmakers.

Consistently, when a nation goes to war, the experience of this war is processed and reflected upon in its movies. We are most familiar with the English-language films on Vietnam and the World Wars, but one might equally cite a Russian film like the little seen but notoriously confronting Come and See (1985), or a Japanese film like Miyazaki’s indescribable Grave of the Fireflies (1988). Some wars take longer to make their way onto screens than others – though less so in the West, where the movie industry has tended to be more willing to take on this subject matter more quickly. But all major wars get there in the end. It’s like an urge that needs to be answered.

Perhaps the supreme illustration of this principle is the extraordinary clutch of American films about Vietnam, which

retain all their power to astonish and shock. Platoon (1986) is an unsparing exercise in confronting its audience with the full brutality of jungle warfare.

Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) drops the comic spirit of Robin Williams into the war, and the awfulness of what is happening becomes all the more awful by the contrast. Rising above them all

But with the sole exception of The Hurt Locker (2008), have there been any that really stick in moviegoers’ memories?

After Vietnam, filmmakers were falling over themselves to bring the war into cinemas, and audiences were falling over themselves to go and see it there.

Not only that, but the films themselves were memorable, commercially success-

is the first and greatest, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979), which is set in Vietnam, but could just as well be set in any 20th-century war. It is not about Vietnam specifically, but about the universal problem of what happens to human beings when they experience warfare.

But considering the cinematic response to Vietnam in the West, there is a question that we should now ask ourselves.

Why have filmmakers, both American and British, shown so little interest in bringing the Iraq War to the screen?

To be sure, there have been a few.

ful, and critically acclaimed. But since the Americans pulled out of Iraq in 2011, there has been next to nothing, and certainly nothing on a serious commercial scale. It’s an intriguing contrast, and it’s too striking a discrepancy to be dismissed as a random anomaly. Why, as Westerners, are we so much less interested in seeing films of Iraq than our parents were in seeing films of Vietnam?

I don’t know the answer for sure, but I can guess it. For a start, I doubt it has much to do with the amount of time that has gone by. Yes, the great films of the Vietnam war emerged only after

Why have filmmakers, both American and British, shown so little interest in bringing the Iraq War to the screen?

the war was over, as though we needed a little time before we were ready. But let’s be honest: does anyone really have a feeling that our Iraq films are on their way? It strikes me that nobody seems to want any – not because we can’t deal with them yet, but just because we don’t really care.

This points to what I suspect is the true reason. Both the World Wars, and Vietnam, left huge psychological scars on the West. The Vietnam experience in particular inflicted wounds on the American consciousness – in everything from faith in the government to confidence in the nation itself – that took a very long time to heal. Vietnam didn’t just hurt those Americans who fought and died in it. It affected the whole nation directly because it undermined so many assumptions about the nature of America; and whether you were for it or against it, almost everybody cared about it deeply. That made it both commercially viable and culturally necessary for filmmakers to produce stories about it that could help Americans to work through what the war had meant for them.

Iraq is different. For those who fought there, and for people close to them, it

ROBERT SELTH

University College was undoubtedly an enormously important experience. For many people outside of that circle, the war undoubtedly still mattered a very great deal, and none could deny that it inspired great passions and provoked heated debate.

But beyond that, there was, and is, an apathy. The impact simply hasn’t been felt as deeply. We don’t particularly want to see films about Iraq, because we don’t feel the need. Despite all our outrage, and although we may have cared deeply about the war on a political or intellectual level, we don’t need the healing – because it barely hit us in the gut.

So in a sense the cinematic response does illuminate our attitudes to this war, if only by its absence. If this is the correct explanation, one response would be to say that this is a good thing. After all, if there aren’t many wounds to be healed, surely that’s something to be glad about, right? There’s a lot of value in that perspective, but there’s another way of looking at it too. Should we be more worried that the American and British movie-going public doesn’t seem very interested in revisiting a war that was the cause of so much suffering? Our parents suffered enormously as our countries went through the horror of Vietnam.

19th February 2015

Fifty Shades of Grey, more sadistic than sexy G

iven the hype surrounding the release of Fifty Shades of Grey, I was surprised to find myself in a near-empty cinema on the date of its release. This is particularly perplexing given that according to the ticketselling site Fandango, Fifty Shades of Grey is the fastest selling R-rated title in the site’s history. Perhaps we’re a little more prudish here in Britain than audiences in the States. It’s also rather embarrassing given that most British cinemas had between seven and fifteen screenings of the film scheduled per day in the opening weekend.

The film follows the relationship between Christian Grey, a young, sexy eligible bachelor, and Anastasia Steele, a shy college student. They are instantly attracted to each other.

But Grey has a darker side, one that he’d like Ana to be a part of, if only she’d sign his contract. (Yes, a sex contract). As the man himself says, his “tastes are singular”. Translation: he’s a massive control freak who is really into a questionable interpretation of BDSM. So when the innocent and virginal Anastasia stumbles into his office one day, he can’t help but try to get into her into his Red Room of pleasure (or is it pain?).

This film is filled with cliché after cliché, and I honestly could not be-

lieve how predictable some lines were.

I laughed out loud on several occasions because I was utterly astounded by the shoddy script. Yet it’s difficult to say whose fault this is, as the dialogue in E.L. James’s book is much the same. The film is much more creative than its paperback counterpart but it’s still pretty laughable.

Dakota Johnson plays the shy and innocent Anastasia Steele, but I don’t think I’ve ever been more irritated by the protagonist of a film in my life.

That said, the Anastasia Steele from the books is similarly irritating, so perhaps Johnson actually deserves a

in a way that stays true to the novel, without being too pornographic.

Unsurprisingly, the producers failed miserably. There’s not enough sex to excite fans of the books but there’s too much nudity for the average cinemagoer. The film is advertised as having a whole twenty minutes of on-screen sex in it, but I have to say that thinking back, I can’t really remember there being all that much of it. What I do remember, however, is that the sex scenes were incredibly repetitive and escalated quite rapidly away from the realms of a little BDSM to borderline torture. Not sexy. What’s

round of applause for being able to translate those annoying character traits onto the big screen. Her co-star, Jamie Dornan, most definitely fits the bill physically for the role of Christian Grey. No matter how devastatingly handsome and mysterious he is, there was just no way that Dornan could make the dialogue sexy rather than absurd.

One of the biggest issues this film had to face was how to take James’ erotic novel and put it on the screen

worse is that Anastasia questions Mr Grey’s twisted nature on several occasions, but still does not cut ties with him. We’re presented with a story about a woman who knows that her ‘boyfriend’, if we can call him that, is deeply troubled and likely to hurt her and yet does nothing and continues to obey him. It’s infuriating to watch.

There were a couple of moments where I definitely saw way too much of the general pubic region of both protagonists but (thankfully) these

I laughed out loud on several occasions because I was utterly astounded by the shoddy script

Screen 7

LAURA HARTLEY Christ Church moments were fleeting. There is a fair bit of nudity in this film, which is to be expected, but the ratio of female to male nudity is incredibly unbalanced.

There’s just so much boob. Dornan is topless in many scenes but he’s got nothing on Johnson who probably spends more of the film completely naked than she does clothed - a troubling fact.

While the sex scenes leave something to be desired, what is incredibly sexy is the music. Featuring songs from Ellie Goulding, The Weekend, Sia, The Rolling Stones, and, of course, Beyoncé, it’s not surprising that the soundtrack has received favourable reviews from critics.

Fifty Shades of Grey is a substandard film that breaks the bounds of what is acceptable too many times to be forgiven. When blown up on the big screen, Christian Grey comes across, not as a sexy bachelor, but as a twisted man who derives pleasure from another’s pain. That said, the film is probably still better than the book only because it doesn’t feature references to Anastasia’s “inner goddess”, but that’s not saying much. Let’s face it, who wouldn’t rather watch two attractive actors get hot and heavy on screen than read E.L. James’ pathetic excuse for an erotic novel?

COUNTDOWN TOP FIVE WORST WIGS IN FILMS

PHOTO/Kimberley French/Summit

5

Emma Watson, My Week with Marilyn (2011) Watson had just famously cut her hair into a short and chic style, so what were the makers of this film to do when she was supposed to play a character from the 1950s? Stick a ludicrously frumpy and ill-fitting barnet on her, of course.

4

Taylor Lautner, Twilight (2008) It would have taken a truly great actor to distract us from Jacob’s locks in this film, and unfortunately Lautner is not one of those. Luckily, with a fresh trim and solid six-pack, he undergoes a complete transformation in the later films (but not even that could save this franchise).

3

Cameron Diaz, Being John Malkovich (1999) It’s a fantastically eccentric film and Diaz is great in it, but this frizzfrom-hell wig makes her resemble more of an animal than the actual animals of her petting-zoo home.

2

Nicolas Cage, Con Air (1997) You’ll recognise this one from the countless memes even if you haven’t seen the film. Cage is a criminal with a heart of gold, and his ridiculous flowing wig (that gives Gandalf a run for his money) floats gently behind him wherever he goes.

1 PHOTO/Universal Pictures

E

SRISHTI NIRULA

Somerville College

xpectations were high when Marvel announced it’s first live-action television series, but every new episode reveals the greater depths of mediocrity that the show can sink to. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D follows the fictional peacekeeping and spy agency of the Marvel universe, and as one of the characters so eloquently puts it: “it means we’re the line between the world, and the weirder world.” Colbie Smulders guest stars in the pilot and adds, in perhaps one of the most patronizing lines ever written, that the public “have access to tech, to formulas, they’re not ready for.” S.H.I.E.L.D is thus presented to viewers as an angry, over-bearing first-time babysitter trying to keep those pesky kids in line.

The biggest issue with the series is the cast of boring, stock characters that a marketing agent somewhere in the Marvel offices deemed likely to be popular. Agent Coulson, played by fan-favourite Clark Gregg (of The New Adventures of Old Christine fame), is at the forefront of the

team. He’s the only one who injects any talent into the otherwise bland cast. When reading a report assessing Agent Ward’s ability to relate to others, he adds humour to what otherwise would have been too obvious a line: “Under people skills, she drew a… I think it’s a little poop.

With knives sticking out of it.” Agent Ward is a predictable addition to the

is also a computer-whiz who singlehandedly runs “Rising Tide”, an Anonymous-like cyber organization dedicated to exposing the superheroworld and those nasty government busy-bees at S.H.I.E.L.D. Again, predictably, she joins the organization by seeing the error in her ways thanks to Agent All-Day-4-O’-Clock-Shadow Ward. It is her soft curls that will

AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D cast, and appears to be present only to act as stereotypical macho eye candy.

He’s obviously too much of a sexy loner to talk to anyone else, and he informs the viewers of this with the subtlety of a jackhammer: “Defusing a nuclear bomb? I’m your guy. Rolling out a welcoming committee? Not my speed.” Oh, sing to me you gorgeous crafter of words.

Equally annoying is Skye, whose hair remains perfectly blow-dryed even though she lives in a van. Skye

ultimately soften the heart of knifepoop Agent Ward. But perhaps the worst additions to the cast are the scientist duo Fitz and Simmons (or Fitz-Simmons for short – how witty!) who add the UK quotient to the show. Marvel’s marketing agent wins yet again, because obviously, an addition of English and Scottish accents into a show will automatically make it popular.

It’s a shame that the characters are so poorly written, because at the out-

John Travolta, Battlefield: Earth (2000) We’d all rather forget that this film happened for many reasons, not least because of Travolta’s Chewbacca-esque hairdo. Oh, he’s supposed to be an alien? That makes it okay then. set, the show did have the potential to be hugely successful. The Marvel universe is filled with well-sketched, interesting characters, but the show has created a cast of bland ones as the audience’s way to get to the good ones. This just leaves the audience short-changed, as we are forced to stay with this boring, archetypal team for too long. On the other hand, a show like Gotham, exploits the fantastic DC universe in a far cleverer way, by having Inspector James Gordon as the protagonist – an already well established, compelling character played brilliantly by Ben McKenzie (of The OC).

Surprisingly, the show is already two seasons in and still hasn’t been cancelled, probably because producers are hoping that the upcoming series of Marvel films will boost ratings. While there are a few good things about the show, such as the well-choreographed action sequences, ultimately, the show proves that while market research can guarantee a certain number of viewers, it can never guarantee quality.

8 Fashion

19th February 2015

19th February 2015

Fashion 9

ULTRAMODERN Photographer: Sakura Xiaomei | Models: Gifty Okonkw

& Mallika Sood | Concept & Styling: Augustine Cerf

10 Fashion

FASHION

Q&A with Lucky editor-in-chief Eva Chen W

ith an Instagram following of over 300,000, Lucky editor-in-chief Eva Chen is a familiar name to anyone keen on keeping up with the New York fashion world via social media. Born and raised in New York City, Chen studied on the pre-medicine track at Johns Hopkins University before switching her major to English and spending her final year abroad at Oxford. Why the sudden change?

Through an eye-opening summer internship at Harper’s Bazaar, she realised that her love of clothing and writing could evolve from mere personal interests into a fulfilling, passionate career in fashion editorial.

And that it did. Working in several different positions at major publications over the years has exposed her to a serviceable aspect of the industry

underneath the layers of glitz and glam. OxStu Fashion interviewed this smart (in brains and dress!), social media-savvy New York powerhouse on everything from technology and careers to academics and her Oxford experience: You were once on the pre-med track, and after graduating, you worked briefly as a paralegal (before working credits at Lucky, holding several positions at ELLE and Teen Vogue, and returning to Lucky, where you now hold the reins as editor-in-chief). What was the most important lesson you learned in your various internship/ work experiences, in and out of the fashion industry?

I think the most important lesson I’ve

learned in the last 15 or so years of working is that no experience is wasted.

I ended up working in magazines and now in the tech space as an accident, really, but each and every one of my jobs and work experiences to date has helped me in my current role. As a paralegal, I learned rather obsessive organisation. When I was in fashion, I learned how to work with outsize personalities. And in beauty, I learned the importance of servicing the reader and helping them – whether by simply making them feel good about themselves or by finding something to fulfill a specific need. Nothing is wasted, even if you don’t end up going the full way in any particular career path. Look for the silver lining,and by that I mean experience and insights about yourself.

Do you think that studying something completely unrelated to fashion as a student has positively impacted your career? What advice do you have for students who want to delve into career fields coming from (what they might perceive as) irrelevant educational backgrounds?

I don’t actually think you need a degree in your prospective career path.

My advice to students is to study what you’re curious about and would like to have a deep immersion in for a few years. It might be philosophy, it might be marine biology. And then get work experience in what you think you want your career to be. They don’t always have to overlap.

One danger people face is tunnel vision. They’ll say “I only care about fashion” and study fashion, only read fashion magazines, etc. They don’t read a newspaper. Or pick up a book.

It’s important to be well-rounded. I look for people who have interests outside of media, fashion, etc. It makes for a much more interesting perspective on fashion and beauty, ultimately.

Your love of social media is wellknown, and you’ve developed quite an audience and fan base by being open and active on your Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat accounts. Do you ever feel “wired” or overwhelmed by the constant communication and digital technology you’re surrounded by in your job? If so, how do you manage?

It helps that I genuinely enjoy being connected. I’ve made great friends through it and am constantly entertained by it! That said, I do take a day off here and there, to take time to stop and smell the roses (and my baby Ren).

PHOTOS / Lucky

19th February 2015

DEMIE KIM

Exeter College What are the greatest personal rewards of connecting with your audience through social media? Do you think there are drawbacks to the rise of digital media in fashion?

Well, it’s a direct line to Lucky’s readers and customers. It’s been great to have an instant point of view on what people are interested in and what’s trending, quite literally. The drawback, though, is that everyone’s a critic... and if people are not pleased with something in Lucky, I hear about it. And that can be difficult, of course.

As an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins, you came to Oxford your senior year to read English. Did your study abroad experience shape your values or change your perspective on academics and/or careers in any way?

I loved my experience at Oxford.

Of course, I went to Catz, perhaps a foreshadowing of my Grumpycat obsession?

Did you have a favourite study space or restaurant in Oxford?

Library: The Bod, of course!

Restaurant: Not sure if it’s still there but there was a little Japanese restaurant called Edamame and I would go there at least three times a week.

What is your favourite memory from your year abroad? ​ Does meeting my husband count?

Any last words of advice for Oxford students interested in careers in media, publishing, and/or fashion?

Follow your passion, be patient, and do your research. And have fun – remember it’s not all so serious!

Fashion 11

19th February 2015

DO-IT-YOURSELF: iPHONE CASE Feeling crafty? Want to update

Emoji fashion: thumbs up or down?

companion? Instead of going to the store to purchase an overpriced case for your smartphone, order a cheap, clear plastic model on Amazon and get creative.

Buttons, gems, studs, flower petals, mosaics, fur balls, layers upon layers of stickers -- the possibilities of embellishment are endless. All you need is some strong glue (we recommend E6000) and Mod Podge or sealer shine.

PHOTO / Instagram @estermoon90

T

o my greatest horror, the Guardian termed a recent trend in fashion ‘lol-core’. This is essentially the sartorial embodiment of the ‘random lol-cat’ (a term I believe my siblings and I coined on one of those rare family holidays in which a shared contempt of others actually managed to bring us together.) The ‘random lol-cat’ is someone who says ‘lol’ a lot and insists on referring to themselves as ‘weird,’ ‘random,’ or ‘crazy’ in a Beboesque fashion. Cara Delevingne, unfortunately, revealed herself to be of said species in her Instagram description, which encourages us all to ‘embrace your weirdness.’

‘Lol-core’ is defined as ‘silly prints, clashing colours and ‘things on things’’.

Examples include manga-like DIY patches, toddler wear (think pugs on socks), and ‘faces on things’. In autumn we were thinking this couldn’t go any further. And yet, the age of emoji fashion is upon us. No one really says ‘lol’ anymore – in fact, language is almost becoming obsolete. Ambiguous emojis are the new answer to pretty much anything. And so, it seems rather appropriate that our fashion should also involve emojis… or, at least that’s what the industry will have you believe.

For a while, the moustache was trending – it basically condensed the ‘I’m so random… lol!’ into one emblem. Next, came the pug, a damn cute animal cruelly forced into being a mascot for the random lol-cat. Next up: the emoji.

Emoji fashion is popping up everywhere. Philip Normal have what seems to be the most expansive range of clothes littered with emojis. Odd Sox,

who proclaim they strive to ‘overthrow mainstream styles’ are actually doing the exact opposite – they’ve made a snazzy pair of emoji-print socks instead. Etsy is brimming with emoji jewellery and nail decals, whilst OMighty are also well versed in emoji clothing, my favourite of theirs being their ‘preaching hands’ high-waisted shorts. I’ve also spotted this fad in Primark, the place where all trends go to die.

Against my will, I actually think some of these emoji-adorned clothes are pretty cool – in an ironic way, of course… Seriously, Lizzie King has made some very stylish ‘90s-style high-waisted jeans covered in embroidered emojis, resonant of House of Holland’s latest collections. Emoji fashion has some potential then. But, as I see it, it’s generally a dead-end fad. The clothes are pretty funny, but they’re not exactly hysterical. I mean, someone has identified that people use emojis a lot and has therefore decided the next logical step is to have people wearing emojis. Although, I guess it makes more sense than most of the actual words printed on H&M t-shirts.

The odd dancing girls, the heart-face and the wine glass emoji can sometimes express more than words ever could, and, true, our menial texts are much more palatable when curated with cute images, but do we need to bumble around wearing poo emoji shirts? It’s not even than random, it’s not weird, it’s not crazy. It’s just a getting a little bit dull. I suggest we work harder to find new ways of expressing ourselves, instead of using ambiguous emojis to avoid both confrontation and sartorial progress. Emoji fashion is, on the whole, harmless – it’s just not getting us anywhere.

Weary of wearable technology

PHOTO / Instagram @thesmallprintuk

INSTAWORTHY @thesmallprintuk are a small

Bristol-based iPhone case company.

Their cases are completely handmade by their small team using high quality sturdy plastics and a state of the art printing method. They create bold and original designs, keeping up with trends whilst occasionally making some of their own. The cases are funky, often have a pop-art kind of feel and a collage aesthetic. They are inspired by pop-culture and a love of all things vibrant – their Instagram is sure to brighten up your feed.

St. John’s College

True, our menial texts are much more palatable when curated with cute images, but do we need to bumble around wearing poo emoji shirts?

the look of your cellular

if you’d like an extra layer of

AUGUSTINE CERF

W

earable technology, at least for now, is a misleading term. I mean, sure, they are technological objects that you can literally wear – but are they truly wearable in public, outside of the safety of your own home?

That was essentially a convoluted way of saying that people look like idiots wearing Google Glass. Technology these days doesn’t exactly scream ‘wear me’! And, quite frankly, carrying things in pockets has never been a struggle.

I mean, sure, the chosen of colour of your iPhone 5C may allow you to express things about yourself you never thought you could before, but all in all, wearable technology tends to be ugly and largely masculine.

The Samsung Gear S watch is large and rectangular – it just looks exactly like a tiny phone placed onto an ugly bracelet. There is no evidence of any effort having been exerted to adapt the Samsung smartphone designs into something that someone might actually want to wear.

Techs seem to have misunderstood what it truly means to incorporate electronical technology into items

of clothing or accessories; they have interpreted fashion in a literalist way.

Style has been replaced by an instrumental view of accessories. Yes, I can physically wear the Sony Smart Watch 2, I just don’t want to.

It’s about time techs collaborated with fashion designers. It’s also time the tech world confronted the fact that women use technology too. In a male-dominated industry, the target of smart watch developments seems to be the male market. The watches are clunky, manly - and generally just not very nice, even for men.

Aside from the fact that, in its current state, technological fashion is remarkably unfashionable, we must ask ourselves if wearing electronics is something we even want to do.

It’s not exactly the self-evident next step. The way I see it, it’s not just our overall stylishness but humanity itself that is at risk of serious decline if we allow our world to be constantly filtered by something like Google Glass. Yes, I just made a huge claim.

In an age where we can barely communicate to one another without constant technological interruptions, where we struggle to read a bloody

LOUISE LAWRENCE

St. John’s College

book without checking Instagram or responding to WhatsApps, where a dinner with friends often results in the realization that everyone is on their iPhones, do we really want to open ourselves up to an absolutely constant and inescapable technological presence? That presence, to me, simply means interference.

We might be in better hands with a technology industry that focuses on electronics that we can actually put away, rather than wear.

PHOTO /Forgemind ArchiMedia

PHOTOS / Polyvore

PHOTO /Ted Eytan

12 Stage

STAGE

19th February 2015

PHOTO/ Nick Mead

Choreographer Wayne McGregor on Dance and Neuroscience A

head of Atomos coming to Oxford next month we spoke to Wayne McGregor, the choreographer behind it. Though just 44, McGregor has had an impressive career so far. He is not only resident choreographer for the Royal Ballet but has also been a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, has done a TED talk, and has worked with bands including the White Stripes and Radiohead. He was also kind enough to speak to the OxStu about his career path, and the pieces he is currently choreographing.

It is unusual to actually make it as a successful choreographer – McGregor says that he never intended to become one. He says he’d “always had a rich imaginative landscape”, starting in amateur dramatics, theatre and dancing in shows where he “got interested in what the body can express without words” over time. McGregor studied drama and dance at the University of Leeds and says that choreography found him there: “In creativity you don’t necessarily know what kind of artist you are going to be but you just look for the best medium that you can communicate in.”

He is clearly talented at communicating through dance, as he landed the job of choreographer in residence at The Place, London at the age of just 22.

Traditionally, choreographers like McGregor come from a background in dance, but he does not think this is necessary. For him, the most important thing is to have a passion for bodies and what they can express. Of course, practice is also vital but he says that some of his favourite choreographers didn’t start off in a career in dance. Of his own company Random Dance, McGregor notes that its dancers come from all over the world. It’s important that their different training impacts the way they dance and the ways they interpret his choreography.

He says he looks for dancers who have “a curious head, a diversity of physical histories and a strong core technique.”

Atomos, one of his pieces, is touring to Oxford in March, so we talked about the process of creating. McGregor has a profound interest in neuroscience so when choreographing he also explores scientific concepts. With Atomos he says he was exploring what happens when ideas move around a group: what gets

left, lost and carried forward. Whilst he stresses that his work is not about the science, he says it does help him in the creative process and that it adds another drive in his choreographic process.

McGregor says he’s also very interested in the ways that dancers interpret the ideas that he gives them looking on choreography as a “co-authorial process”: “Their bodies are affecting the way I’m making decisions, it is very exciting because we start to understand things about the possibilities of movement that you never could have done on your own.”

Whilst he works on the composition of the pieces alone, the choreography is something that he creates together with his dancers. As a result it’s important that his dancers are vocal and have opinions, because he thinks it adds to – and improves – his works. As he showed in his TED talk, for him, choreography is about thinking with the body.

Outside of the theatre, McGregor has an impressive list of projects he’s worked on. He recently worked on the new Tarzan franchise that is coming out in 2016 and was the Movement Director for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. “It’s all

about bodies,” he says: “it’s the same, it’s just in a different context.” It seems his skill set can be applied to a whole range of places, but he explains that working on a set and helping to realise a director’s vision is quite different. When he’s working to someone else’s brief he says it “challenges him to work in a more rigorous way on a particular idea”. The directors might make him re-jig pieces numerous times until he’s created what they’re looking for.

At the moment McGregor is developing Woolf Works for the Royal Ballet.

This will be a full-length piece based around the writings of Virginia Woolf.

Woolf’s narrative structure is famously difficult to follow as she tried to emulate a stream of consciousness in her novels – according to McGregor she “tried to write like dancing, rather than like literature.” Just as Woolf challenged the hierarchies of narrative structure, Wayne is hoping he’ll be able to do the same thing in the Opera House: “It’s going to be a stream of consciousness ballet, just like she writes, drawing on those incredible images and words.” McGregor is the last piece in the puzzle for this

HARRIET FRY Somerville College production; the music and design have already take two years to perfect and now he has just fifteen weeks to come up with the steps. Rendering Woolf’s prose in dance is no mean feat and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

For those of you interested in working on similar projects Wayne told me that his dramaturg for Woolf Works, Uzma Hameed, came from a very academic background having studied Modern Languages at Cambridge. As a dramaturg she comes from a very literary point of view. She explores the images in Woolf’s writings with Wayne and discusses how to put things together in a more ‘woolfian’ way.

If you know anything about dance you’d probably have already heard of this choreographer but who knew that dance could be such an intellectual process. I for one am certainly looking forward to seeing what he does next- in the lab or on stage.

Atomos is on at the Oxford Playhouse 3rd-4th March. Wayne McGregor is giving a talk at St. Hilda’s on 10th March.

Stage 13

19th February 2015

Bourne’s Burton Ballet

PHOTO/galleryhip.com

A

n eerie, Frankenstein-like creation process, continual comedy (including bean bags that fall from the sky) and beautiful ballet seem an unlikely cocktail for Matthew Bourne’s production of Edward Scissorhands, however the result is a spectacle of comedy and colour.

When a lightning strike kills a young boy, Edward, his father desperately recreates the son he lost, sewing together body parts. However in the cold darkness of his laboratory, his father is killed by a gang of local boys before he can give Edward the finishing touch – the hands he has made for him. Instead he is left with what was meant to be only a temporary solution: scissors in place of hands. An outsider, alone and searching for acceptance, Edward wanders towards the nearest town, an idyll of suburban pastel and white picket fences.

Based on the 1990 film by Tim

Burton, featuring Johnny Depp as the title role, and building on the film score by Danny Elfman, Bourne captures the magical quality of the film beautifully. Terry Davies’ final score is played live by the New Adventures Orchestra, making the piece particularly powerful.

It is a surprisingly comedic piece, as Edward imitates the movements of those around him, and dreams of a world where he and Kim dance unencumbered, surrounded by dancing box hedges. He is soon cutting hedges all over the neighbourhood, giving haircuts and even styling the hair of Mrs Upton’s precious poodle, at his own ‘Salon Edwardo’. Mixed in with this there are some more tender moments, particularly between Edward and Kim, however sometimes the sensitivity of the story is lost at the expense of making the audience laugh.

CHARLOTTE VICKERS Pembroke College

extraordinarily well in the fight scenes, choreographed by Jennifer Hurd.

The production is planning to make the exploration of madness something that the audience can also feel through strong lighting. They are even giving them blindfolds to make the experience about more than just the visual elements of the play. Projections of the scenes – some of which will be filmed by the Fool on a handheld camera – will be shown around the theatre, so the audience’s perspective will change during the performance.

The team of actors are talented and well chosen – there will be no chance here of Shakespeare not being understood – particularly Lear and his daughters. Emma Hewitt’s Cordelia convincingly combines sweetness and grit, while Georgia Figgis and Isobel Jesper Jones as Goneril and Regan respectively are satisfyingly sickening.

Hyde commands the stage as Lear. At the beginning the other actors seem to orbit him and we watch as they gradually lose repect for the King, as he (and they) lose their grip on reality and sense of self.

King Lear promises to be a show that is not only entertaining but an experience that will affect its audience deeply.

I look forward to seeing how the different elements of the show come together.

Lear’s looking good S

tephen Hyde’s vision of King Lear is absolutely fascinating, if not quite terrifying. The production concentrates on the essential human self and, more importantly, the animalistic nature that lies within.

Whilst all of the characters are explored in this way, the investigation, of course, focuses on Lear himself, played

by James Hyde. He is an insecure and anxious man but we sympathise with him and understand to an extent why he makes the mistakes he does. The directors have chosen to make the character of the Fool a physical extension of Lear’s internal conflict between sanity and insanity; a sort of fusion between a conscience and the personification of madness. This is an incredibly interesting concept, and promises to play on the minds of the audience and the other characters.

Hyde’s Lear also plays with physicality, focusing closely upon the body as well as the mind. The characters initially appear to be regal and static, yet over the course of the play their actions reveal this to be far from the truth. By the end these inhibitions, caused by the need to conform to expectations, are lost, shown

AMELIA BROWN Jesus College Bourne does little to revitalise Burton’s story, and it is a relatively unoriginal copy of what has already been done, albeit on film. For a choreographer who is known for his innovative reimagining’s of the likes of Swan Lake and Cinderella, it is disappointing that he is unable to display such originality here.

The large dance scenes are too busy to take every detail in fully, and seem to be visual spectacles rather than a continuation of the storytelling, so that they seem to lack substance. It is a slick and polished performance, but perhaps overly so, resulting in something that feels too precisely practised to be naturally moving.

The part of Edward Scissorhands was danced with witty charm and tenderness by Liam Mower. It is a particularly challenging one, more about physicality and movement than strict ballet, navigating clock-work like movements and scissors for hands.

I was disappointed by the one scene where Edward was not encumbered by the scissors – a dream sequence in which he had hands. It seemed choreographically unimaginative for the one moment of freedom afforded to Edward. Yet Scissorhands comes into his own in his final dance with Kim (Katy Lowenhoff), as the two dance mesmerizingly together.

Bourne combines a touching and visually stunning story, with beautiful contemporary ballet, but it falls short of any great originality and focuses more on spectacle than the delicacy of the story.

Matthew Bourne’s production of Edward Scissorhands is currently on a national tour.

BURSTING THE BUBBLE I

t’s midway through term and some of you may feel the need to escape the Oxford Bubble so we’ve rounded up a list of the best London shows on at the moment.

Take a look at what tickles your fancy for your mini-break away from those lectures, essays and the Rad Cam. Plays: Top on our list is the play My night With Reg. This acclaimed comedy has just transferred from the Donmar for a limited run at the Apollo. Set against the background of the AIDS crisis the play follows a group of gay friends living in London. Set in the 1980s, the group meet sporadically after key events in their lives. Watch their changing group dynamics in this bittersweet comedy.

Rather more darkly uncomfortable than comedic, How To Hold Your Breath, has just begun its run at the Royal Court Theatre. Having opened only a matters of weeks ago, Maxine Peake’s performance (Hamlet, The Theory of Everything, The Village), has already received critical acclaim and I for one will not be missing the chance to see her in person on stage.

Slightly off the beaten track is the Battersea Arts Centre in Clapham.

With a huge range of performances continually on offer, this is the place to find everything from spoken word poetry, physical dance theatre, and quirky new creations, as well as a multitude of workshops for young people who are interested im creating theatre.

To return to the West End line up.

Duchess of Malfi KIERAN VAGHELA Christ Church

PHOTO/Lear Press

King Lear

7:30 - 6th week Keble O’Reilly

PHOTO/The Duchess of Malfi Press

The Duchess of Malfi 7:30 - 6th Week Burton Taylor Studio

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has recently trasnferred to the Gielgud. Based on Mark Haddon’s novel and adapted for the stage

by Simon Stephens, the story follows a boy, his family, and how he relates to the world around him. Poignant and funny, with a brilliant set by Bunnie Christie, this isn’t to be missed.

Musicals: For those who prefer a little more singing and dancing, the West End of course provides a plethora of musical entertainment. For guaranteed enjoyment, you can’t go wrong with a classic such as Billy Elliot. Combining dance and socialist struggle, the musical is an incredible re-imagining of the iconic story.

The Menier Chocolate Factory also sees Sondheim’s Assassins grace its stage currently. Certainly worth a trip, this theatre can even offer fine dining before the musical begins.

Dance: The Royal Opera House has a lot to offer at the moment. The home of traditional ballet, this is the place to see their current production of Swan Lake. Their version combines Petipa’s classical choreography with new costumes and an incredible set; it is a beautiful spectacle of dance at its best.

For those of you who prefer more contemporary dance Draft Works will be put on next week. The production features shorter pieces of choreography by the dancers of the Royal Ballet. It sounds like an interesting exploration of dance in its rawest form.

W

ebster’s Duchess of Malfi is one of the best-known works of English 17th Century Drama. Pretty unusual for the BT then, you might be thinking.

What director Cara Kenny and her team have realised, however, is that the underlying tensions of the play – the devastating impact of gossip and rumour – are more relevant to us nowadays than ever before.

That’s why their version is going to be taking place not in the Court of Renaissance Amalfi, but instead that of 21st Century Tabloid Culture. It’s a play all about intrusions into the personal lives of others, and the director told me that this was part of the appeal of the BT as a venue – raised seating in the BT will allow them to perform this play, usually performed on a large-scale, on so small a stage that the audience themselves will feel they are intruding physically into the scenes they are witnessing.

Mary Higgins and Christy Callaway-Gale, playing the Duchess and Cariola, her confidante, respectively, impressively capture the nervous excitement and coquettish nature of their

characters in the first act, as the Duchess seduces Hamish Forbes’ Antonio.

The contrast between the Duchess’ overt confidence and Antonio’s reservations about the idea of a liaison between the two is something which this performance particularly draws out. The Duchess’ initial confidence, however, only serves to make her descent into despair all the more harrowing. The interchange between the Duchess and Bosola, a former killer, in Act 4 is replete with the sort of crazed passion that comes only from utter despair. In another interesting decision, this production has Bosola in a gender-inverted role, with Bex Watson performing the traditionally male part. It was interesting to hear the director’s reasons for this: in a play where the Duchess suffers so much due to societal constraints based on her gender, they wanted to create a Bosola who can act as a direct comparison - a woman who refuses to conform to gender stereotypes and takes advantage of society as suits her, without regard for reputation.

All in all, this promises to be a fascinating modern-day interpretation of Webster’s classic, and is definitely worth a watch, particularly for those second-year English students amongst you.

14 Arts & Lit

ARTS & LIT

The Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy: Titillating or trash?

T

his week saw the book that nearly outsold the Bible brought to our cinema screens.

Complete with such iconic phrases as “my very own Christian Grey flavoured popsicle” and “kinky fuckery”, I’m sure none of us were surprised to see its arrival. Fifty Shades of Grey wasn’t just a book, it was a phenomenon. In fact, it can be tempting to think of a pre-E. L. James Western world as a kind of philistine, monastic Waste Land where no one really knew what bondage was, let alone contemplated using a nipple grip.

So what exactly was it about it that meant even my grandmother read it (yes, really)? Well, this is porn for women, by women, that women actually want to read, and inextricably entwined with that is the fact that it’s literature.

Though more and more women are watching hardcore pornography (in some cases because of this book, no doubt), the fact remains that online porn is a dominantly male pastime, with many women finding titillation constructed by and directed at men too abrasive, forced, and (ahem) inyour-face. Literature, on the other hand, allows us to project our own fantasies, exploring the dark recesses of the imagination via some not-so-

PHOTO/GRAHAM HOLLIDAY

PHOTO/WENN.COM

carefully constructed prose. Christian Grey can be whoever you want and do whatever you want. There is, ironically, something incredibly liberating in reading about being tied up.

Besides, there’s a whiff of accept-

ability about books, as though it’s not real porn if it takes the form of the written word. You can distance yourself because it’s all in the mind, claim you’re reading to ‘broaden your contemporary literary educa-

tion,’ and skip the bits you don’t like. No wonder my adolescence was peppered with bonkbusters (hello again, Gilly Cooper) that formed a kind of raunchier sex-ed lesson.

Throw kindles into the equation, and

W

e caught up with Doug Taylor, the host of Oxford’s spoken-word show, “From the Horse’s Mouth”.

So, Doug – what is spoken word, and how do we get some?

Spoken word is essentially performance poetry – it’s all a bit blurry round the edges, and kind of a mishmash of rap, monologues and poetry, but it’s usually one person on a stage waxing lyrical about something or other. Am I selling it well enough? It’s quite a young medium still, so it’s not so clear cut as a play, but spoken word, or performance poetry, is on the up. It’s becoming a bit of a buzzword.

So how do you get some? Are you asking for poetry or dating tips?

Either way, come to Horse’s Mouth.

ACS (Afro-Caribbean Society) also put on great spoken word nights, with a few big names, so definitely check them out. There’s also a night called “Hammer and Tongue” in the Old Fire Station every second Tuesday of the month. They’ve been going for over ten years, and get the biggest names from all over the country to come perform, I highly recommend them. If you’re in London, I’d also check out “Bang! Said the Gun” and “Tongue Fu” – really established and bloody good nights. Also, if you’re unsure about going to a spoken-word

19th February 2015

EMMA IRVING

Lady Margaret Hall suddenly you’ve got a technological invisibility cloak that means you could be reading Chaucer for all your fellow commuters know (cue crafty wink and chuckle from the knowing woman opposite you on the tube).

Erotica is popular because we feel it’s acceptable. And whilst of course it is desperately sad that women still feel the need to mask their sexuality or think in terms of socially constructed norms, it’s got to be good that having a chat about how to use a riding crop is more accepted than it was.

And that is why I’m not sure how relevant this film will be. Like it or lump it, Fifty Shades of Grey is powerful, but it’s powerful because it’s predominantly a book. Transitioning into film could mark the beginning of more female-focused visual pornography, or it could more probably just give us a series of mawkish, soft-focus sex scenes with the odd bit of baby oil, all strung along a really weird and horribly written ‘love’ story. The liberation it has created for women who could suddenly privately read about things that excite us just doesn’t come across when you put that into a visual format.

So it was flowers and chocolate but no Odeon ticket for me for Valentines Day, thanks. introduces each poet one after the other, they go off on one for fifteentwenty minutes then they bring on the next etc. At Horse’s Mouth, we like to switch things up a bit, so we have home-grown hip hop, bits of standup, and most importantly a live jazz band for the poets to use as backing.

You’ll definitely laugh; you’ll definitely have your heartstrings tugged.

From the Horse’s Mouth night on a whim, check out people on YouTube first: Kate Tempest is probably the leading light (her rap album got nominated for the Mercury Prize) along with people like Scroobius Pip, Polarbear, John Berkavitch, Holly Mcnish, and others. For a whistlestop tour of the American scene, check out Mos Def’s show ‘Def Poetry’ –

PHOTO/DOUG TAYLOR

ELEANOR TREND & DOUGLAS TAYLOR

Pembroke & St. Hilda’s Colleges

somehow he managed to get series after series of a show that showcases the best of American spoken word, and it’s awesome.

And what happens in a spoken word night?

Well it depends really, but whatever happens you’ll definitely laugh;

you’ll definitely have your heartstrings tugged a little, and you’ll certainly think “Hmm” to yourself at least once. Some spoken word is about love, sometimes it’s very political, sometimes it’s just plain funny. In set-up at least, Horse’s Mouth is different from most spoken word nights though – usually you have a host that

What I like about having a jazz band is the atmosphere is essentially created for you (as a host, that’s an absolute gift), and there’s more of a feel of the audience joining in naturally rather than being made to shut up and listen. To quote our rapinstitution-of-a-man Jaylee who gets us going each time: “When I say big, you say vibes”. You’ll get that with any good spoken-word artist though; you’ll feel like they’re talking just to you. Improvisation as well – we love a bit of improv. We feel it brings it back to the sixties and the beginnings of beat poetry, all those accounts of jazz musicians heaving and sweating in a roaring dive in Denver. That’s kind of what we aspire to, that kind of energy. Alcohol helps.

19th February 2015

Arts & Lit 15

RUSKIN PROFILE: Callym

PHOTO/CALLYM

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

I

t is difficult to articulate exactly where the beauty of David Mitchell’s prose lies. There is an immense charm both in the individual phrase and his artfully crafted plots: pensive, lyrically wistful and yet bursting with a vivid hope of human potential. A perverse analogy, perhaps, but there is something of an Alt-J lyric about the abstract metaphor and small twists of eloquent emotion.

The Bone Clocks – audacious, kaleidoscopic and dazzlingly inventive – is perhaps his most spectacular offering yet. The ambition of this book cannot be overstated; the diversity of characters, period and places (both real and imagined) is almost overwhelming, extending even beyond the cultural touchstone of Cloud Atlas. Transporting the reader from a sleepy late summer afternoon in the early 1980s through to a post-contemporary Ireland struck by catastrophic climate change and dwindling energy sources, the story is epic in all senses.

While it is punctuated by dark flickers of fantasy, do not be mistaken: this is not a “fantasy” novel. The fantastic elements are outlandish, certainly (involving vying groups of eternally lived soul-decanters and “atemporal” vigilantes); but they are instrumental rather than inherent to the novel, permitting Mitchell to capture the reflective melancholy which occurs whenever one’s own brief life is juxtaposed against the sweep of history.

A constant existential fragility of both individuals and the aggregate of humanity pervades the novel- the drabness and prosaic peril of a future Ireland, lacking both a functional state and a secure re-

PHOTO/MEGAN MARY THOMAS

HUGH McHALE-MAUGHAN

Brasenose College

source supply, is deeply shocking. This continual consciousness of humanity’s mortality seems to be one of the central tenets of the novel: we are all the titular “bone clocks”, slowly unwinding and easily shattered.

This is Mitchell’s astounding gift: to effortlessly weave individual lives into the greater narrative of humanity. This process is powerfully moving in its own right; the deft touches of pathos that he adds augment the emotional richness of the novel. The obvious parallels of reincarnation and significant temporal and spatial variation will doubtlessly draw comparisons between The Bone Clocks, and Could Atlas and number9dream, Mitchell’s other disparate narrative novels. However, I think the real likeness is with one of Mitchell’s lesser-known but finest books Black Swan Green. Though the latter is more of a true bildungsroman, capturing just a few short months of a boy’s adolescence, both unusual for Mitchell in their focus on the progression of an individual journey rather than a prismic variegation of separate lives.

While his penning of micro-portraits of characters is delightful, I cannot help but feel that the greatest reward comes from Mitchell hitting his full narrative range and letting a life unfold slowly over the full course of a book.

This is certainly the case with Holly Sykes, The Bone Clocks’ protagonist. She is doubtlessly one of the most identifiable, sympathetic and complex characters that Mitchell has created, augmented by the genuine and powerful sense of her growing up and then ageing as the pages turn. Her life both provides a uni-

fying thread to the novel and articulates a profound comment on the unitary experience of being human. The supporting cast crackles with all the wit and imagination that one has come to expect of Mitchell: Hugo Lamb, a Cambridge undergraduate, provides a case study in the construction of an urbane sociopath, effortlessly charming and with some of the funniest and sharpest dialogue I’ve seen in contemporary fiction. (A scene set in an end of term Cambridge pub will be readily identifiable to anyone who has attempted to muscle their way through the bar at the King’s Arms on Friday of 8th week.)

For devotees of Mitchell, there is an added richness to the novel. Several of the main characters appear across Mitchell’s other books; Lamb actually first appeared as the charismatically dangerous cousin of Black Swan Green’s protagonist. There is also a welcome reappearance of Dr. Marinus from The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, once again as an uncompromising and pure force for good. Indeed, this sense of sonder pervades all of Mitchell’s work, with just a hint or flicker of a single unified universe lying behind his various unique stories. It heightens what is already an extraordinarily impressive body of work.

In David Foster Wallace’s words, “fiction’s about what it is to be a fucking human being”. This could scarcely be truer of The Bone Clocks, which captures, spark-like, the briefness and vivid brightness of human life. This is a sparkling gem of a book by an author at the height of impressive powers.

C

allym, a second-year Fine Artist at St Hughs, talks about the process behind the creation of art, and how his philosophy of art is relevant to his philosophy of life.

Which areas of art are you most interested in?

My artistic interests cover a wide range of topics, spanning from explorations of time as a social construct last year to my current obsession with the heat death of the universe. One thing that ties them together is the use of 3D modelling and digital rendering. I use these technologies to create stills and animations that have a physical plausibility – under the surface they use physical models of light to create images with photorealistic potential. This allows me to explore how I can use light and shadow to create interesting digital spaces that (hopefully!) immerse the viewer.

How do you go about creating a piece of art?

After I’ve found something that I’m interested in, be it an idea that I want to explore (like the heat death, the social constructs of the passage of time, or just a general aesthetic that I am interested in), I try to develop a mental ‘moodboard’ of how I want the piece to end up, which involves some key choices which have to be made very early on in the process. These include the medium I plan to use, whether it will be a series or not, and which colours I’m trying to create.

Because of my wide range of interests, I find it very useful to have a few rules to guide my artistic practice (and life).

One of the most important of them is to not take myself too seriously. I think this is essential, as my interests involve some fairly dense topics – sometimes

it’s a struggle to balance them out with less serious aspects. Another rule is a constant obsession with ‘aesthetic’ – the look and feel of my work. This is an obsession that can be found in all of the art I make, with them all playing off a very similar set of aesthetic influences in different ways.

How does your artistic practice influence your everyday life?

I think one of the big differences between a Fine Art course and the other courses that you can study at the Ruskin is how personal your artistic practice is compared to the academic practices of other subjects. Because of this aspect, your art becomes your life, and I think for most people, their artistic practice is so intrinsically tied up to their everyday life that they directly inform each other.

My use of digital technology and exploration of the internet as a platform for my art means that I am extremely interested in how culture develops in this new realm. We are spending more and more of our time on the internet, connected to a global network in which culture and fashion and ideas can spread faster than they have ever been able to spread before, and it is only natural that this would lead to a rise of subcultures that only exist on the internet. Seapunk is probably the most famous one, and probably the one that influences me the most, having been described as a “web-joke with music”, which fits in with my not-too-serious outlook on life, and it gives me a great excuse to wear loads of blues and holographics!

Where can we find your work?

I try to keep my website up to date (http://callym.com), and sometimes I post ‘teasers’ on my Twitter account (@callymcallym).

PHOTO/CALLYM

19th February 2015

PROFILE

Profile 13

PHOTO/Natalie Bennett

Natalie Bennett is stepping up her game T he Green Party is having something of a ‘moment’.

Bizarrely, the proposal for leadership debates which excluded the Greens seems to have given them an opportunity to garner more media attention. Natalie Bennet, the party’s leader since 2012, smiles when I mention their poster campaign in response to the debacle, which featured her and Caroline Lucas grinning alongside the caption “What Are You Afraid of Boys?” The whole situation seems to have worked to the party’s advantage.

“What it simply did was gave us a little bit of airtime, a little bit of space.” She sees how it gave them an advantage but is, as ever, confident in the strengths of Green Party policies. “People actually started to hear, more than they had before, what we had to say. Things like making the minimum wage a living wage, bringing the railways back into public hands, saying that profit-making has no place in the NHS, all those sort of things... it created an opportunity but it was our policies and our approach that helped us to seize that opportunity.”

It has been painted as something of a battle by the press – a battle which Bennett has won – in being invited to take part in a seven-party televised leadership debate. This will, she hopes, have a positive impact in more ways than one.

“I think one of the really exciting things about the debates is not just that I’ll be there but also that Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Wood will be there too, and I

really hope that the image of an almost gender-balanced leader debate will be inspiring to not just young women, but all women.”

Although of course she takes her leadership role seriously, and represents the Greens by discussing their policies wherever possible, it seems Bennett is also, more generally, seeking a change in our political discourse. The existing dynamics of our democracy have, according to Bennett, pushed people into a position where they “vote for the second-worst alternative.” I note as she is speaking that her assessments of the current political climate are in no way hampered by the fact that she has not herself been a Member of Parliament.

Yet her insights are also those of someone whose party is on the outside of the established order, an order which she sees as having “actually encouraged the two largest parties to just focus on the swing voters and the swing seats; ignore their core vote, ignore everybody else basically, and virtually narrow it down to not much more than 100,000 people.”

“If we’re going to change the kind of politics that we have,” she emphasises, “it’s actually in voters’ hands.” This raises yet another issue though, as voter engagement is dwindling. We discuss how this has manifested itself in Oxford, especially since the end of automatic voter registration.

“Where I think the coalition is culpable is that there’s been very little official government effort, very little work to

promote the fact that it’s changed, to encourage people to register to vote. So I think there’s been a real failure to get the message out.”

This failure is a major concern for those hoping to engage young people, as we’ve seen in Oxford; campaigns reminding us to register to vote are everywhere, yet only a third of Oxford students have done so. This is also something which Bennett wants to make sure is addressed.

“There’s a real risk that what we could

"We wouldn't support the Tory government under any circumstances" see is if this election takes fire in the last couple of weeks – in the way the Scottish referendum really did – and people are really engaged, we could see a lot of people turning up at polling stations not being able to vote, and that’s going to be really damaging for our democracy.”

One might assume that it would be beneficial for the Greens if more young people vote, since the student population are the most likely to sympathise with their particular brand of libertarian leftism. Yet the party has been in hot waters recently with this core part of their support, due to the comments of Cambridge parliamentary candidate Rupert Read which were viewed as

transphobic, describing trans women as “a sort of 'opt-in' version of what it is to be a woman.” He has since apologised, as has Bennett, but it was certainly an embarrassing incident for a party which promises to take a lead in protecting trans rights in their EU manifesto.

“Rupert has apologised and said that he is going to meet with trans groups, that he needs to understand this issue better and I’ve accepted that,” she says in relation to the incident. “But actually Rupert’s status is up to the local party; the Green party is a decentralised party, we don’t direct things from the centre.

But I’ve accepted that apology, I think Rupert is seeking to move forward and I think the Green Party is and remains a real champion in LGBTIQ rights and that’s something I’m very proud of, and we’ve actually got some very interesting policy-motions, part of which I proposed, coming to conference around that.”

Maintaining a good reputation on feminist issues certainly seems to be a key part of the party’s appeal. Their focus may be the environment, but Bennett is a self-proclaimed feminist, and she sees a lot of matters as connected.

“We’ve always viewed environmental issues and social justice as indivisible.

But I think what’s really clearer in people’s heads is that we at the moment are in an economic crisis, a social crisis, an environmental crisis, and the fact they’re all happening at the same time isn’t an accident. It’s actually interlinked. We

ALYS KEY Somerville College have this system, the way we’re running our economy and society at the moment that’s simply unsustainable in all of those terms: economically, socially, environmentally. We have to change the whole system.”

It’s an ambitious goal, but it’s certainly a strong message. Over the next few months, Bennett will be leading a party with an increasing number of members into what could prove to be a gamechanging election.

“I think it’s simply a big step-up in capacity,” she says. “We’ve now got 53,000 members, and they’re the ones who determine policy. Not me, not anyone doing horse-trading that will get them a ministerial car or any of that.”

With opinion polls currently so close, most people are wondering what will happen in the eventuality of a hung parliament. The Greens could play a part in any deal-making, and Bennet makes it clear that “we wouldn’t support the Tory government under any circumstances”.

“If we were looking to support a minority labour government, we’d be doing it on a vote-by-vote basis. So we wouldn’t get the ministerial cars but we’d keep our principles. And be able to how we want on, to pick an issue at random, tuition fees.”

Talking to Natalie Bennett is like talking to a family friend or a favourite teacher; while I hold a deep respect for her leadership, she is also a personable and chatty. She doesn’t just want to espouse her views, but is also keen to listen.

My DPhil supervisor doesn’t understand me...what can I do?

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19th February 2015

OXSTUFF COME DINE WITH ME: LMH FOOD AND DRINK 8/10

A strong performance from LMH here.

A choice of bread rolls (none of that imposed, bread-based oppression found at other colleges like Somerville), a starter of risotto was solid if unspectacular, and a trio of chocolate desserts were what soulless corporations tell you any single girl dreams of on Valentine’s Day. But all this is secondary to the main event: guinea fowl is a personal fave of mine, and there were enough dauphinoise potatoes for seconds all round. Excellent.

Points knocked off for broccoli.

ATMOSPHERE 6/10

A nice candlelit affair. Dress was smart, although sans-gown. A Latin grace made the experience distinctly more Oxford, but I think LMH's hall is not as impressive as others around

OUDS New Writing Festival 17th-21st Feb Burton Taylor Studio

Oxford Radical Forum 20th Feb, 5pm Wadham College

Blood Wedding 25th-27th Feb St John's College

the uni - you know it’s not great when you’re being edged out on formalities

by Somerville. However, I went with a mate who’s not at Oxford, and I think he was a bit more impressed than I was.

in fear of having the rookie waiter spill meat and gravy over you, but, hey, it looks pretty classy and LMH’s waiting staff carried it out perfectly. A mark here for fanciness.

PRICE

CONVERSATION AND COMPANY

7/10

Not being a seasoned formal-goer, I’m not really sure the going rate for formal, but I’m not really going to complain about a three course waited meal for £9.

Somerville charge that too, so it seems fair.

WOW FACTOR 7/10

Despite the aforementioned hall issues, bonus points to LMH here for continuing one of the least useful things ever devised by humanity - along with sub fusc and any floor at Park End (excluding the cheese floor, of course) - silver service. Your food gets cold and you live

'How to be Beyonce' - Talk 20th Feb, 5pm Exeter College

9/10

Attended with two friends from home, one at LMH and one not at Oxford. Chat was good and involved many ‘Hogwarts’ references and making up strange Oxford customs for my friend to unwittingly copy. Not gonna complain about about a formal with my mates. Point knocked off for other people I know at LMH not going.

TOTAL SCORE FOR LMH: 37/50 PHOTO/Kat Selvocki

Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts 22nd Feb, 7.30pm Sheldonian Theatre

No Scrubs Oxford 21st Feb, 11pm The Bullingdon

PICK OF THE WEEK Jungle 20th Feb, doors 7pm O2 Academy

OxStuff 15

Bloody Knuckles 19th Feb Warehouse

King Lear 25th-28th Feb Keble O'Reilly Theatre

Discussion Capitalism vs Democracy 25th Feb, 5pm Wolfson College

Alexander Darby, New College

Noises Off 18th-21st Feb Oxford Playhouse

The ISIS Class and Education Panel 24th Feb, 7.30pm Exeter College

16 OxStuff

19th February 2015

CLITERARY THEORY PHOTO/Flickr user Piers Nye

PHOTO/Jan Nedvidek

Jan Václav Nedvídek has many reasons to celebrate: his chinos are famed around Oxford, plus he’s recently made it into the news for sending an open letter to OUSU and, despite being the current Treasurer for OUCA, apparently has “far more interesting things to do” than get involved with OUSU. As the letter makes clear, Jan is (shockingly) not one for “direct action” or “violent protest,” but those who harbor communist sympathies should probably be wary: for Jan, even more abominable than OUSU’s actions is the fact that “it has become acceptable in Oxford to be a Communist.”

Free speech for all - so long as your profile picture isn’t an image of Stalin.

JAN NEDVIDEK

WHALELIOL COLLEGE There’s a curiously piscine whiff to Balliol’s desire to merge with their cooler cousin Wadham, from which we can only deduce that their particularly severe case of Wadham-envy is, in fact, a cover for some fish-based obsession or suspect venture. Is it a mere coincidence that Balliol’s proposal for the creation of ‘Whaleliol’ was based in part on Wadham’s possession of a cottage in Cornwall, surely one of Britain’s prime fishing hot spots? Nor can there be any explanation for their desire to follow Wadham in serving chips in hall everyday rather than the traditional fishy accompaniment. In perhaps the most ominous move, what had started as a sensible idea to purchase a tank in order to conquer Wadham has resulted in Balliol purchasing a fish-tank instead.

We believe this to be a step too far into fishy territory, but wouldn’t mind seeing Balliol incorporate fish into Wadham’s Zumba classes.

PHOTO/Darcey Murphy

FONDA DIX Arse & Clit Editor

U

sually, when you hear people talking about trying to recapture the magic in their relationship, they are forty-something, married with kids, and slowly forgetting what sex looks let alone feels like. My story is somewhat different.

There was a man – let’s call him Fred. There was a club – Let’s call it Lola Lo, because it was Lola Lo… Fred and I vaguely knew each other and were at that level of flirting that could only mean one thing: if we ran into each other in a club, we were going home together and never looking back. I wasn’t looking to get romantically involved at the time, but he was fun and tall and pretty and he had an accent, so I was definitely looking for something.

So there we were, we had finally run into each other. We were in Lola’s, the theme was Hawaiian and the Alohas were flying. But, as luck and classic cockup would have it, there was a reason that currently escapes me why we couldn’t go home together that night. I know – a tragedy if ever there was one.

Still, we went for some elementary fun anyway, because let’s face it, a make out session in a dark corner is just more fun than other things you can do in Lola’s. The vibe was particularly steamy; sparks were flying, hands were roaming, and clothes were being tugged just that little bit too far for a public place. We’re talking below public indecency, but probably just above socially acceptable levels of clothes-tugging…

Doesn’t this story just get sadder and sadder? This would by all accounts I believe have been a fucking great one-night stand. However, after managing to pry ourselves apart in the midst of the heat, we painfully parted ways.

At first I felt like we had probably missed our likely sex window, but then, in a moment of pure inspiration, I thought: ‘what if Fred could be just what every girl dreams of?

That highly coveted perfect casual sex partner.’ Proudly, I waited until my next opportunity to flirt my way into Fred’s bed, exited by the prospect of what was surely to come. Yet, my brilliant plan had two fairly fatal flaws.

Firstly, we were very, very drunk at Lola’s, and secondly, we had still never had sex.

This week brought both of these problems very much to my attention. Fred and I, in an attempt to find that fire that seemed so inherent to our relationship while making out at Lola’s, went out for a drink. We chatted, we flirted and we swiftly made our way to my room because there was simply no need to prologue the tension any longer.

However, this is the point in my story where we hit our wall. As we soberly rolled around on my bed, the vibe seemed to be much more bump than grind; R Kelly would not have approved. I found my thoughts drifting very much off into the realm of my to-do list and the classic, ‘I hope this doesn’t take too long, because all my friends are going out in a bit…’, neither of which is a good sign.

At this point, I was already realising that we definitely seemed to require more than one drink to enjoy ourselves, but things then took a weirder turn. It didn’t take long to notice that Fred enjoyed pinning my arms to the bed as he roamed around my body, which I decided to go with for a little while at least. However, when during a rare breather he began to lecture me about how ‘Everything in life is about sex, apart from sex, which is about power,’ I realised that he had his hopes set on a little more than pinning me down. Yes, that’s right, this week’s Fifty Shades fever really has hit hard. When I tried to jokingly ask who it was in particular that had the power, he looked my straight in the eye and said, ‘Usually me. In fact, almost always me.’

Now, while I understand that the Fifty Shades phenomenon has replenished the love lives of many a middle-aged lady, it has also apparently meant that guys have started assuming that most women want to be dominated. Just by the by, boys, this is not OK. That is the first moral of this story.

Needless to say, I giggled and made my disinterest clear to Fred, who understood and left, while I met with friends to go out. The second moral, then, is perhaps that in-club romance is perhaps best kept as just that… Unless you’re planning to get roaringly drunk every time you meet, but who has the time?

ONE TO WATCH

PHOTO/Anna Lapwood

ANNA LAPWOOD

T

he Times cottoned on to Anna’s ‘One to Watch’ status long before the OxStu when they published an article about her way back in March 2013.

It was two years ago that Anna caused a stir by, as The Times article put it, ‘Breaking through the class ceiling’ by becoming the first ever female organ scholar at Magdalen College, but people are still raving about this ground-breaking achievement.

As if getting the position wasn’t challenging enough, Anna is now juggling her BA in Music with what is effectively a full-time job (on top of around five hours practice a day), teaching the choristers and playing the organ every day for college chapel services.

Her musical career stretches way beyond Oxford: Anna has now performed at the BBC Proms three times on piano, harp and organ, twice under the baton of Vasily Petrenko, and once under Edward Gardner.

She is also a part of Gareth Malone’s Voices, and has appeared with them on the Classical Brit Awards, the Royal Variety Show, and the One Show. The Voices released an album in November 2013.

She played piano with NYO for the Queen’s Coronation Festival Gala concerts, held in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, and televised on BBC 1.

Despite having studied harp, violin, viola, piano and composition at the Junior Royal Academy of Music for six years, Anna says she still hasn’t “settled” on her main instrument and refuses to call herself a ‘singer’ or ‘harpist’: “I’m a musician,” she says, opting for a suitably comprehensive term given her extraordinary range of musical talents.

Delving into Lapwood’s CV is at once a very humbling and depressing activity – when she’s not in Oxford making history in her everyday routine as a female organ scholar at Magdalen, Anna will no doubt be doing something extraordinary, like travelling to Zambia to teach music at the Ngome Dolce Music Academy.

No wonder she has over 1000 followers on Twitter.

OxStuff 17

19th February 2015

PHOTO/Rosie Shennan

Puzzle by Poins

CROSSWORD

I

didn’t go out clubbing much before I came to Oxford. Part of the problem was that I’m a thoroughly boring person, but I used to put it down to the fact that the one club in town had the ambience, appearance, and approximate smell of a shipping container with 50 kilos of rotting fish. It was a wonder that Chicago’s hadn’t gotten a cease-and-desist from the Windy City to tell it to stop besmirching its name. Capone, even with all the baseball-bat-to-skull incidents, is a better ambassador than a venue whose ostensible draw is paying for the pleasure of having someone else’s beer spilt on you, whilst your friend picks a fight with a chair. And loses.

Even people in Chelmsford knew Chicago’s was bad, and they think that Nando’s classes as a fancy restaurant. My only other experience with clubbing was in Krakow, and involved vodka which tasted disturbingly like window cleaning fluid and lots of drunk Germans.

I decided to put my preconceptions of clubbing behind me when I came to Oxford. The very first night of Freshers Week dawned and I was raring to go. My toga was fitted (though I opted for the ‘I’m going to wear all of my clothes beneath it to avoid hypothermia later on’ approach), I’d had a Pembroke Pinky, and we were on our way to Camera.

In retrospect, Camera was a poor club to base my idea of Oxford clubs upon. The sort of place which has an intermittent police presence sounds deliciously edgy, but is really just quite pathetic.

It’s the great disappointment of Oxford clubs – without the chic of The Cellar, nor the infamy of Park End. It’s a middle-aged man, paunchy with thick-rimmed glasses, trying (and failing) to prove that it’s just as cool as the kids.

That being said, a friend whose

room was just above Camera had the delight of nightly debates between couples, which almost invariably ended with the sound of broken glass and screaming.

My night itself was, regrettably, unforgettable. Or at the very least, not forgotten. There was one round of shots, followed by some dancing. I think I enjoyed myself a little, until the realisation hit me that walls shouldn’t sweat.

And that I was surrounded by god knows how many fellow students, dressed in bed sheets. For a mo-

think of it, probably more dancing, and kebabs.

But you know, for the life of me, I can’t give in to the sweet, sweet embrace of drink. Not because I don’t trust myself, but because I don’t trust other people. Maybe it comes from being an only child, but paranoia is my basic state of being. The idea of willingly surrendering my natural wariness for brief snatches of pleasure, between being deafened by bad remixes of house music and being half crushed to death by a dozen bodies doesn’t excite me greatly.

If I’m going to voluntarily undergo sound torturecum-pressing, I’d rather not pay for the pleasure either.

To be frank, I prefer the far classier option of drinking alone – at least when I pass out, there’s no-one else to see.

There’s also the advantage of not having to see other people. At the best of times – i.e. when they’re a safe distance away from me, preferably behind bullet-proof glass and steel bars – humans irk me and scare me in equal measure. They’re just made exponentially worse when you add alcohol to the mix.

Sometimes it’s the kid with the bop costume which took them way too long and looks far too good; sometimes it’s a git in red chinos desperately attempting to get attention, and vainly backing-up their non-existent suavity. If people are bad, then clubbing brings out the worst in them.

Yet, no matter how much I fear and loathe clubbing, I worry that, as a student, it should be a raison d’étre (alongside cirrhosis, kebabs, and academic mediocrity). In 10 years, when I look back on the good old days before I had to do real work, I fear that I’ll see my time here as wasted.

Then again, at least I won’t have any memories of waking up in a club toilet. I’ll take that as a victory.

Paying for the pleasure of being deafened by bad remixes excites me similarly to chewing on broken glass ment I felt Hunter S. Thompson staring down at me, and he was shaking his head in disgust.

I left early, dazed, confused, and bitter (and with a peculiar taste in my mouth from the shots). I don’t think I quite made a written promise not to make the same mistake again, but I didn’t go clubbing for the good part of a year. Well, excluding a very short stint at a bop, dressed as Saint Francis of Assisi.

I can concede that I really should have known better, even as a naïve fresher. There have been no further bops, lest I remind any fellow Pembrokians of my folly.

The main problem is that clubbing requires the same certain lack of self-awareness which allows shamans to connect with the spiritual world, just with a hangover in place of a deep feeling of contentment. If you turned on the light and looked around the club, it would be one of the most disturbing sights since the decadence of Rome’s last days. Youths, covered in sweat and alcohol and selfloathing, grinding in close proximity to each other in windowless rooms. On paper, it sounds sort of like the Black Hole of Calcutta, with more booze. And, come to

ACROSS 1) Imminent calamity as crazy cow models for ads (5,2,8) 9) Anni about to ring the chap who nearly lost a pound (7) 10) A cut of beef wrapped around a piece of Roquefort with English parsnip (7) 11, 21) of the French enemy (5) 12) Eve’s agent maybe in town (9) 13) Father takes issue with 21 (8) 15) 21’s alternative source (6) 18) This social rebel exercises around one after a joint (6) 19) The BBC study of insect food (3-5) 22) Make an impression out east with article on Russia’s top doctor (9) 24) Prospero’s Art degree initially gained in Carthage (5) 25) Arising from a field of medicine involving supernatural power (7) 26) Poet goes around ancient city with American entertainer (7) 27) Macbeth’s witches ride with tresses flying (3,5,7) DOWN 1) And in uplifting places get to one’s feet (5-2) 2) What a cheerleader mustn’t be at odds with (3,2,4) 3) 21’s finished by the sound of it (5) 4) Circle about lost in thick mist in March (8) 5) 21’s a superior gun (6) 6) Rewrite ‘I love Brad’ in colour (5,4) 7) Killer whale trapped by the French 21 (5) 8) Pose by spring for 21 (7) 14) Put back in position again in New York? (9) 16) The sudden appearance of a pressing necessity – not unknown to Elizabeth (9) 17) He takes newly married women to Scottish islands (8) 18) 21 in 20’s Pocket (7) 20) Police return to Livingstone’s with 21 (7) 21) Pen legal document with hesitation (6) 23) Old cricketer in thrilling race to get a thousand runs in May (5) 24) Doctor again before the Head of Swedish Customs (5)

Last week’s solution

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19nd February 2015

FEATURES

Features 19

PHOTO/AKEEL MALIK

Akeel Malik: Founder of the Ublend app

B

ridge is offering free queue jump to people with the Ublend app this Thursday. If that isn’t enough of an incentive to download it, read on.

Studying at Oxford, there’s one problem (aside from never-ending reading lists, remembering to top up your hall card, and avoiding a cameo on Shark Tales): how to make the most of the sheer volume of opportunities on offer during the relatively short eight week terms.

Ublend founders, Jean Petreschi, Anders Krohn and Akeel Malik think they’ve come up with a solution: an online, centralized platform for talks, debates, theatre and social events, which also offers information on student discounts, summer balls and University societies without you having to go through and ‘like’ every interesting event that comes up on

your newsfeed.

Partnering with local clubs and businesses, Ublend has attracted 1,500 users since its launch in Michaelmas Term. I met with Akeel Malik to discuss the process of embarking on a student-run tech start-up, the upcoming launch of Ublend 3, and exactly how the app will help you make better use of your time at Oxford.

Turning an idea into a practical reality can be quite daunting, but while other people were working, island-hopping or partying over the summer vacation, Jean, Anders and Akeel began contacting societies and businesses, subject faculties and college JCRs in Oxford, trying to persuade them of the merits of an integrated online events organiser and how they could benefit from it: a task that’s fairly challenging when you don’t have an existing user base.

Jean and Anders, both from Harris Manchester college, had persuaded Akeel from Pembroke to get on board with the idea early on, Anders having met him through the Economics & Management course.

In the early stages of setting up

Partnering with local clubs and businesses, Ublend has attracted 1500 users since its launch in Michaelmas the company, they were able to use a number of diverse experiences to their advantage: law-student Jean had done some work with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and alongside an angel investor in Paris; Anders

had experience as a member of the WEF Global Shapers Community and Akeel, whose parents run an enterprise in Manchester, had been involved in a number of entrepreneurial activities at home; setting up a comic book at school, working with Young Enterprise to design a number of laptop cases they later sold to Ryman’s stationary shop and setting up a marketing company to help small family-run businesses in Manchester.

Each primarily focusing on a different area of their start-up, Jean, Anders and Akeel hired a developer from Denmark; later replacing him with a team of three developers who had gone to primary school with Jean; obtained some investment and advertised at the Fresher’s Fair. Ublend was launched in 6th week last term, three months after work on it had begun, aiming to establish itself, in

FELICITY BL;ACKBURN Somerville College Akeel’s words, as the ‘place to go for student life’.

Ublend 3, to be launched this April, will move away from the more informational focus of Ublend 2 to include a newsletter function, events ticketing and greater interactive integration with Facebook and other social networks.

With the concept set to expand to other universities in the UK next year, the future of the start-up looks promising: establishing itself as the app of choice for student event organisers and providing students with a more efficient way to keep up to date with the events most relevant to them: as the app promises, "the choices are yours – you blend".

Talking about the future of the start-up, Akeel also described how they are hoping to expand the concept to other universities in the UK.

20 Features

“O

19th February 2015

Breaking language barriers

POLLY MASON New College

h…right…languages were never really my thing.” There cannot be a Modern Languages student anywhere in Britain who has not heard these words after being asked which subject they read at university. Some people just cannot understand why anyone would want to learn another language - “but everybody speaks English” and others are astounded by the fact that you’re even attempting to do so.

Indeed, it is estimated that over 95 per cent of the British population are monolingual English speakers. So why are the British so reluctant to expand their linguistic prowess?

Being a languages student at Oxford makes it very easy to forget just how ingrained this reluctance has become, especially in young people; there is a tendency to believe that not learning a language during your teenage years means that the opportunity is lost for good; three out of four UK adults cannot speak another language well enough to hold a conversation. This brings me to the first of the most common excuses for not learning a language: “I’m too old.”– It’s a widelyheld belief that the optimum 1 age for language learning is younger

than seven - giving you an almost comically narrow window - but, in truth, it is never too late to learn. It’s true that research suggests that the brain becomes less able to adapt itself in response to new experiences as you get older, making the acquisition of an authentic accent and pronunciation more difficult, but some aspects, such as learning vocabulary, are easier for older people. Also, the mental health benefits of bilingualism do not decrease if you do not start learning until adulthood - indeed, they may actually increase as different parts of the brain are activated - and include the delayed onset of dementia, improved memory, and increased attention. Anyone with determination and the right attitude can get their head (or tongue) round it.

“Everybody speaks English, so 2 why bother?”– This is somewhat harder to dispute, given that English

is the second most commonly spoken

PHOTO/ Classic Art Wallpapers

language in the world, with 1.2 billion people speaking it as either a first or second language. Who hasn’t experienced the mortification of valiantly trying to speak to a native in their own language only to be answered in near-fluent English? The French are the worst for this, hating to hear their treasured language being butchered by some useless English person. However, surely this in itself is enough of a reason to attempt to learn another language to a competent level. The classic stereotypical image of British tourists speaking English loudly and slowly to natives is mortifying and yet often painfully

accurate, and, speaking from personal experience, foreigners are taken aback and even impressed when you can successfully communicate with them in their own language. Who doesn’t love defying a stereotype? Limiting yourself to English on the basis that it is widely spoken is to miss out on a vast array of cultural experiences.

Foreign literature is always best experienced and understood in the language in which it was originally written, and offers valuable insight into history and the world seen from another perspective, whilst humour and country-specific customs are often simply untranslatable. Beyond

the practicality offered by speaking another language, it opens the door to a whole new cultural world.

“I just “can’t do” languages.”– 3 Most people’s language learning experience is limited to the classroom

which, unfortunately, tends to involve doing lots of tedious (but necessary) grammar exercises, talking about their favourite holiday, and learning whole oral exams off by heart. Languages at school are a bit like Marmite, and those who don’t get to grips with them presume that they lack linguistic capacity and give up as soon as possible - which can now be as early as at the

Distant Voice: Land of de’ Medici

L

ate last January, I found myself dragging a battered suitcase, filled with too many books and not enough clothes, across the uneven cobbled streets of the Oltrarno - the humble and underappreciated southern half of Florence where I was to live for the next five weeks.

All I knew before arriving was that Florence was a city in Italy that wasn’t Rome, and that it had something to do with the Renaissance. What I had expected from the Italian climate was not there; instead the rain had followed me from London. I had no plans, I had no contacts, and I spoke no Italian. The fact that the whole trip wasn’t a disaster still surprises me to this day.

I rented a room from an eccentric Italian lady named Francesca who loved The Big Bang Theory and became very concerned whenever she ran out of tea, correctly recognising it as the lifeblood of the British. Every morning I grabbed breakfast from the Piazza Santo Spirito market on the way to my Italian class. The ciabatta sandwiches were interesting: they were too cold to be comfortably consumed as they were, yet the owners would give you a disapproving look at the request of heating them up. Rightfully so, too, for the lettuce because soggy, the cheese melted, and the entire slice collapsed to a mush. I spent my afternoons running to the Piazzale Michelangelo – the steep climb is totally worth it for the

view. At night, one can see the entirety of Florence lit up in golden lights.

At the centre of the panorama, the famous Duomo di Firenze designed

by Arnolfo di Cambio in the late Medieval Ages stood out as heraldry of Gothic architecture. Such evenings were spent admiring the serene essence of the City of the Arts away from the pushing and shouting of the millions of tourist that flock here weekly. I would also spend many an evening reading on the banks of the river Arno, eating gelato and taking endless photographs.

The gentle sound of the current would rush pass me in the freshness of the Mediterranean evening.

Despite the language barriers, I was welcomed by fellow travellers and

locals alike. On the evening of my 19th birthday a mismatched group of Italians and international students took me to a bar overlooking Brunelleschi’s Dome, followed by a trip to the secret ledges below the Ponte Santa Trìnita.

As you sit there, looking out over the river towards the Ponte Vecchio, you feel as though you are floating in space.

The scene is especially atmospheric at night, when the water looks completely pitch black and reflects the lights of the rows of buildings from either side.

The experience is quite unsettling but mesmerizing at the same time.

It was in Florence that I finally caved and downloaded Instagram.

Everything about this city is beautiful – the architecture, the light, the

end of Year 9. However, just because you struggled at school, it doesn’t mean that you are inherently linguistically inept. Learning a language later in life is completely different, with a whole range of resources available, including podcasts, CD courses, and an array of useful websites. The looming presence of exams disappears, making the whole experience more enjoyable, and you can learn completely at your own pace, dedicating as much or as little time to it as you want. Also, chances are that somebody learning a language postschool actually wants to be doing so, and they find that, actually, they can do languages.

XANTHE GWYN PALMER

Wadham College people, and even the graffiti. Art is unavoidable. The Uffizi and the Galleria dell’Accademia need no recommendation, but museums like the Bargello and the Alinari National Museum of Photography are often overlooked. The Florentines have a wonderful habit of cultural amalgamation: the Libreria Café la Cite manages to be a bar, café, library, art gallery, and music venue all at once.

There is also the Oblate Library – Florence’s answer to the Rad Cam – where you can enjoy both literature and aperitivo in the roof garden alongside chattering Italian students.

Florence is an unpretentious, bright colour-burst of a city; it is my happy place.

Features 21

19th February 2015

The staple of modern living F

Brasenose College

WILLIAM SHAW

a drag. But then again, I do want to hear about that party, and I do want to see those photos from last night.

Let’s try another set of statistics, this time relating to consumption.

A typical Facebook visit lasts for 18-20 minutes, the highest traffic occurs mid-week between 1pm and 3pm, and on average 48 per cent of daily active users log onto Facebook as soon as they wake up (cf. 28 per cent who log on before they get out of bed, Facebook). Admittedly these data can skew: a “checker” is not a “user”, but how many times do you “check”?

I catalogued my checks yesterday – Messenger, a quick scroll on the move, Alt & Tab on Chrome – and I tallied 27. 27!? And I would claim to be a “responsible” user. Does the argument of ease and convenience not belie laziness? Does all that passive, voyeuristic clicking not conceal a bit of a dissatisfaction with self?

For what it’s worth, we’re too far gone. If Facebook were hacked and terminated tomorrow, would not a mass psychic crash of some unprecedented nature ensue? Blood on the streets? Probably not - but certainly a widespread social disenchantment and, in some individuals, a virtually (being the operative word) pathological anomie: on an unprecedented scale, yes, but not impossible. Who knows?

Maybe we are already sowing the seeds of our own social destruction. For the all-empowering present moment, though, fingers crossed for some likes.

PHOTO/ Bangkok House

PHOTO/PIXABAY/PDPICS

acebook’s online community of monthly active users (1.39 billion by the end of 2014) is expected to overtake the present population of China (1.4 billion) in the next quarter of 2015, but is this a significant milestone, or just a rogue comparison? I can’t decide. On the one hand, sensationalism will out: the trimillenial cradle of civilization meets Zuckerberg’s virtual empire, which is now entering its second decade (is that all?!). China gave the world paper, tea and the compass, while Facebook ushered in the age of cyberbullying, zombie sentience and “smart boredom” (a wonderful phrase borrowed from a tweet by the Belarusian commentator, Evgeny Morozov). But then, the population of China is not commensurate with the demographics on Facebook. The Facebook experience is, by its virtualized nature, homogeneous: it’s the same experience in Kuala Lumpur as it is in Kidlington. And what is it, really, but a promiscuous distraction, the interaction of avatars masquerading as people who are themselves stripped of all their contingent characteristics?

We’ve heard this all before, of course.

But I can’t be the only one who still feels rancour against Facebook for becoming such an essential part of our social furniture. The wanton individualizing, the social ever-presence, the plain ridiculousness of formatting biography and lived experience by means of projected simulacra – it’s

Oxford etiquette

JONATHAN GRIFFITHS

THOUGHT FOR FOOD T

his week, Will and I ventured to a hidden slice of Thailand, unbeknownst to many students behind the enchanted gardens of Worcester. The whitewashed exterior seems unassuming, but once inside, the stylish interior decoration reveals another world. From the delicately carved dark-wooden tables, the serene Ranat Ek background music, bronze statues of Asian goddesses, to the colourfully exotic decorations draping down from the ceiling, the ambiance did not let down the restaurant’s selfproclaimed authentic Thai cuisine.

A critic once said the way to judge a Thai restaurant’s calibre is through their

chef’s Tong Yum Soup. The searing soup was certainly bursting with character. I loved the balance of herbs, sour, fire and sweetness in the broth. The prawns were tender and juicy; the lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves garnish added an extra punch. That said, the soup could have done without the bland white mushrooms that seemed a little out of place.

The Bangkok Delight platter certainly lived up to its name. The selection included satay skewers and Thai dumplings served with a refreshing assortment of dressings. The daintiest part was the mini fire cauldron for heating up the skewers; the enticing smell coming off at the spit-

ting blue flame was mouth-watering. By the end of the course, my bouche was very much amused.

The menu had all the gamut of classic Thai cuisine. The Thai green curry was aromatic; the creamy flavour of the coconut milk came through nicely, contrasting the sharpness of the chilli. The beef was perhaps a little over-done, but the dish was certainly packed with flavour. The piquant papaya salad – subtly spiced – soothed the palate from the otherwise lip-numbing fiery power of Dante’s forth circle of Hell- indeed a proof of its authenticity to a foreigner.

This, and the moreishly must-have Thai

milky iced-tea made it difficult to flaw the meal. By the end, both of us felt very sated, just as what authentic Thai cuisine should achieve.

Overall, the staff displayed the hospitality one would expect from high-end restaurants in Thailand: humble, polite and helpful. A supper at a Thai restaurant need not end in mediocre food that leaves a bitter residue in your mouth. There are indeed more economical restaurants around town, but Bangkok House is a far cry from the swinish calibre of the egregious crewdate-ish ‘Thai’ diners known to us. It is unreservedly one of the rough diamonds of the Oxford dining scene.

Corpus Christi College

L

ibraries are an inescapable fact of student life, especially at Oxford.

Indeed, the amount of time the average Oxford student is required to spend in one of the city’s many libraries is roughly equivalent to the amount of time the average dentist must spend with his hand inside people’s mouths.

This is an apt comparison, because while large amounts of time spent in and around enormous stacks of books is very much a part of the student job description, one can’t help feeling the entire situation has the potential to get a bit... bitey. It’s all very well saying that it’s ‘part of the job’, but such a sentiment is monumentally unhelpful when dealing with the often stressful and exhausting nature of most libraries.

The worst ones form a kind of hellish labyrinth of erudition and confusion terrible places, full of lost bod cards and lost souls, not to mention the broken printers, decaying tomes, and aggressively unintuitive shelf layouts. Library work can often feel like an uphill struggle, a hill which aggressively shushes you whenever you start crying, which is entirely understandable when you are facing down yet another three-day deadline and the prospect of having to read and understand Beowulf, Das Kapital and Thomas the Tank Engine in a single night, in preparation for a fiendishly complex essay on ‘Preand post-industrial representations of human and non-human interaction’.

All of which is to say that libraries are places where emotions often run high, and it is therefore important to remain conscious and respectful of other users.

For example, while it may very well aid your concentration to blast tinny R&B from your laptop speakers, such behaviour will generally get you thrown out, as will playing dodgems with the book trolleys or attempting to scale the shelves in an attempt to mitigate the soul-crushing boredom involved in actually reading Dubliners.

The golden rule, of course, is that one must maintain absolute silence at all times. It’s like being in church. Only instead of just one Good Book, there are several thousand. And you have to read all of them.

22 Sport

Queens and Magdalen early favourites after first week of Dodgeball Cuppers Last Saturday saw the start of this year’s dodgeball cuppers, Oxford and the world’s premier sporting competition. Two hours of intense dodgeball combat saw the conclusion of groups A and B with Magdelen and a Queens side in ominous form emerging as group winners, along with second place finishers, Univ and loveable underdogs, Trinity, to take the first four places in the quarter finals.

Among the vanquished St Antony’s, taking a break from fighting crime in 1980s Miami to bring us some of the freshest shirts this side of Bel Air and a nighmarish spandex-clad Hertford side deserve special mentions. This weekend sees groups C and D battle it out for a place in quarter finals.

Blues women keep clean sheet in impressive win After a week off due to frozen pitches, the OUAFC Women’s Blues stormed to a 3-0 win over the University of Birmingham Women’s 2nds last Thursday. Although the Blues had some fairly good chances in the first half, they weren’t clinical enough, going in 0-0 at half-time. By the start of the second half though, Oxford started to find holes in the previously robust Birmingham defence. Player of the Match went to substitute Laura Jennings, who scored two excellent goals in the last 15 minutes of the match.

OURFC narrowly defeated by Army Senior XV

OURFC Men’s Blues lost out to the British Army Senior XV in Aldershot last week, in a narrow 30-19 defeat.

Both teams showed intent by testing defences with strong handling and sure handling from the off. Oxford has a very strong first half, scoring all their points, going in 13-19 in favour of the visitors. Unfortunately the Blues were unable to repeat their efforts in the second half, with the Army taking advantage of Oxford’s missed opportunities to score tries of their own, for a scoreline that flattered the hosts.

The OxStu sports team wants you!

Want to see your club feature on our new University sports sidebar? We would love to hear from you. Please send in your brief team reports and news updates to oxstu. sport@gmail.com or get in touch with one of our esteemed editors David and Alex at david.barker@ some.ox.ac.uk and alexandra.vryzakis@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk.

19th February 2015

World Cup 2015: Batting first the way to go?

• In the opening four games of this year’s tournament, the team batting first scored 300+ runs Since the new playing regulations were introduced in late 2012, allowing only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle, run totals seem to have increased dramatically. The change in rules along with the combination of bigger bats and generally shorter boundaries, especially in the subcontinent, has made a once mammoth total of 300 much more achievable.

The reason for totals going up is not necessarily due to fewer fielders patrolling the boundary rope. It may be more down to experienced batsmen being able to work out a bowling team’s plan each delivery much more easily. Captains and bowlers will protect the boundaries where they believe batsmen can play relatively simple orthodox shots corresponding to the mode of attack used by the bowler.

the innings and with the huge pieces of willow now used the ball flies off the blade. The white kookaburras used in this world cup only generally swing for four or five overs and the art of reverse-swing used by the great Pakistani fast bowlers at the death of an innings has simply vanished. So unless a team bowling first takes at least three wickets during the first ten overs the batsmen can easily accumulate runs. One might think that with one extra man in the circle there are less gaps in the infield and as true as this is, on the large Australian grounds, with quick outfields, there is still plenty of space to pierce the infield and beat the boundary riders.

All these factors added together may mean that scores of around 300 are only just above par against the eight teams expected to make the quarter finals.

Nonetheless, any team defending 300+

For example, facing up to a pace bowler with long-off, long-on, deep extra cover and deep mid-wicket/cow corner placed on the boundary, a quality batsmen will immediately recognise the bowler is planning to bowl full and at the stumps.

Canny batsmen, such as England’s Jos Buttler could quite easily shuffle across his stumps to such a delivery and play a ramp shot over or through short fine-leg picking up four runs. Only the best bowlers with suitable conditions will be able to keep quality batsmen at bay.

With two new balls, one used from each end, the ball stays hard throughout

in Australia with a decent bowling attack should feel mighty confident and that is simply due to the pressure of requiring more than a run a ball from the first ball. Opening the batting chasing means one has to attack straight away to avoid the required rate reaching seven early on in the piece, however, opening the batting while setting a target for the likes of Finch & Warner, Rohit & Dhawan, McCullum & Guptill and de Kock & Amla, gives them a free license to try and get their team off to a flier in the batting powerplay with only two fielders on the boundary.

PRANNAY KAUL SPORTS WRITER

Bell, Buttler and Morgan need to step up their game and help out youngsters Taylor and Root

PHOTO/ AAP

• Eoin Morgan: England’s captain hopes his side improves it’s batting performances

The ability for spinners to contain the opposition as well as look for wickets, during the middle overs, has also taken a hit with the new playing conditions. In addition, playing in Australia and New Zealand, known for their assistance to quick bowlers, has worsened the situation further. This will severely impact the chances of India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka to reach the semi-final and final as they rely much on their spin options. Australia & New Zealand, the hosts and favourites, seem to have all bases covered especially the seam-bowing department, each using five seam bowlers in their opening match.

So where does all this leave England and their chances to finally lift the world cup? They along with Australia, South Africa & New Zealand should be the most familiar with conditions at this

World Cup. England have the bowlers required to go far in this World Cup, and their fielding is right up their with the best around. Their batting and especially the ability to chase or set targets of 300+ will be the main concern for Peter Moore, Eoin Morgan and the rest of the England outfit. The key for England surely is for Broad to regain his usual potency, but more importantly for Bell, Buttler and particularly Morgan to step up their performances and help out the youngsters Taylor and Root in making big scores. In the end, however, the shear firepower of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia could lead to the downfall of England at this World Cup. However, due to the ridiculous tournament format, England only need three good days out to get their name of the trophy.

St Peter’s defend Polo Cuppers title

• St Peter’s successfully defend Cuppers title in hotly contested tournament at East End Farm RACHEL TANNER SPORTS WRITER

OUPC recently rounded off an eventful term of polo with their annual Winter Cuppers. With an impressive turnout of eight colleges competing over 12 matches - not to mention the excitable spectatorial contingent - East End Farm was buzzing with activity.

The proceedings got off to a flying start as LMH took on the more experienced Christ Church, including club President Lizzy Hamilton, with great tenacity. With strong play from Adam McKay and the unwavering support of Thomas Johnson, LMH managed to stay level, ending on a respectable 3-3 draw.

Next up were favourites St Peter’s, featuring husband and wife team William and Lana Hsu. Despite their secret weapon of Varsity Captain Lawrence Wang, it was another close call against St Catz. However, the determined defence provided by Sally Cactús couldn’t stop Wang from getting one in in the closing minute, setting the precedent for Peter’s undefeated run.

A 1-0 win for festively-attired Bal-

PHOTO/PETER JAMES DERBY

liol over St Antony’s was followed by a somewhat fraught encounter between Brasenose and New College. Rachel Tanner managed several break-away runs to goal for Brasenose, but battling a zealous defence, it took a penalty to lead them to victory.

The next match saw some strong ride-offs from Kasey Morris for Balliol as they went head-to-head with Christ Church, ending in a 2-2 draw.

This was followed by an impressive 5-0 triumph for St Peter’s Jacky He and teammates over New College, with three goals from Hsu. Play-offs began with success for St Antony’s who pipped New College to the post for 7th place. With Kathleen Derose at the forefront, Antony’s put on a great show to overcome New’s spirited line-up led by Novice Captain Emmanuel Efunbote. Balliol’s

resilient defence proved effective once again as they kept St Catherine’s from the goal quarter to finish in 5th.

In the battle for 3rd place, Novices Rachel Harrington-Kandt and Natalie Page gave a determined performance against Christ Church. Ably assisted by seasoned Varsity player Elli Gilje, Brasenose finished in a respectable 3rd place.

Everyone was on the edge of their seats for a nail-biting final between reigning champions St Peter’s and a well-organised LMH side. LMH put up a brave fight led by Issa Patel, but ultimately it was no match for Wang and Will Hsu’s skilful attack and Lana Hsu’s quick-witted defence near the goal line.

The tournament was decided by a 4-0 victory and Peter’s raised the trophy (or Champagne!) once again.

Said Captain William Hsu, “All that training really paid off and everyone had a great day. We’re so proud to retain St Peter’s title.”

Most Valued Player went to Sally Cactús for a consistent display of skill, and Freddie Hamilton was awarded Best Goal for two winning shots including an impressive scoring backhand.

Sport 23

19th February 2015

The Donbass Arena, Shakhtar Donetsk’s ultra modern 52,000 seater stadium after being struck by shells fired by pro-Russian separatists

PHOTO/MAX DAL

Shakhtar Donetsk: refugees from Ukraine’s civil war

• The ‘Miners’, Eastern Europe’s premier club side, have been forced to relocate from their home city in Eastern Ukrainian • Despite playing their games in Lviv, the team have excelled amid adveristy to reach the last 16 of the Champions League

RUPERT TOTTMAN DEPUTY EDITOR

Poland and Ukraine seemed like a strange choice for the hosts of a European Championships when they were awarded the tournament in 2012, especially given the fact that Italy were in the running, having not hosted a major tournament for 22 years. Nonetheless the choice was made on the basis that as the boundaries of modern, developed, western, Europe expanded eastwards, so too should football. It would be inaccurate to say Eastern European football has always been on the fringes of the world game, the mesmerising Polish side of the early 1980s were unlucky not to win the 1982 World Cup and became one of the lodestars of Polish opposition to the brutal Communist Jaruzelski regime along with Solidarity and the Catholic Church whilst a Hristo Stoichkov led Bulgaria delighted the world in reaching the semi finals of the 1994 edition in the USA. However, historically Eastern European footballing nations have often been in the shadow of their western neighbours.

Euro 2012 promised the chance to begin to redress this balance, to leave a legacy for both nations to build upon.

Whilst on the field Poland continue to underachieve terribly, given their embarrassment of riches in attack including Robert Lewandowski, to many the most complete forward on the planet, in terms of infrastructure the country has certainly benefitted with cities like Poznan and Gdansk seeing the benefits of increased tourist engendered by exposure during the tournament.

Ukraine is different. Whilst on the field matters seem trivial to discuss given the current civil war that has engulfed

the east of the country, in terms of infrastructure it is barely as if the tournament had taken place at all. As the financial crisis struck in 2008 work on the promised stadia, hotels and transport links ground to a halt, leading UEFA and Michel Platini to issue a number of ultimatums to the country, threatening to take the tournament from them if sufficient progress was not seen to be made.

The promised new hotel rooms and metro extension in Kiev largely failed to materialise, but what did were two new stadiums. The Olympic Stadium in Kiev and the 52,000 seater Donbass arena in Donetsk, completed early in 2009 and funded largely by its new regular tenants;

galvanised by their purchase by billionaire mining magnate Rinat Akhmetov in 1996, shortly after Ukraine gained independence and were able to win their first league title in 2002, breaking the decade long stranglehold of the famous Dynamo Kiev team of the 90s, who counted Andriy Shevchenko amongst their number and reached the Champions League semi final in 1999. However it was with the appointment of Mircea Lucescu in 2004 that Shakhtar were able to dominate and transcend the Ukrainian League, winning the UEFA cup in 2009, becoming fixtures in the latter stages of the Champions League and cementing their place as Eastern Europe’s premier

Shakhtar Donetsk’s stellar performances have given their supporters a rare ray of light Shahktar Donetsk.

Donetsk has always been a hard place.

Founded by Welshman John Hughes in 1869 around a number of coalmines and a steel mill he had established in the region, its ascent from a miners’ camp to a city was based on Stalin’s merciless drive to industrialise the Soviet Union, and the need to exploit the rich resources beneath the soil of the Donetsk region.

The city was the birthplace and workplace of Alexi Stakhanov, founder of the Stakhanovite movement in the USSR based on the glorification of hard physical labour in the name of the Communist ideal. Shakhtar Donetsk, taking the first part of their name from the Ukrainian word for miner, were founded in the city in 1936.

Having spent most of their history knocking around the lower reaches of the Soviet football pyramid, Shakhtar were

club side, and a symbol of the Ukranian nation on the international stage.

Donetsk has always been a hard place, but Shakhtar became the jewel in the rusted crown of this industrial metropolis, before the war a classic city of haves and have nots, clawing its way out of the jaws of post Soviet decline to a brighter future based on the seemingly endless mineral wealth under its feet. Shakhtar became the antithesis of the city in which it was based, priding itself on the dual principles of vibrant attacking football and being a finishing school for some of the world’s finest footballing talent. The team that reached quarter finals of the Champions League in 2011 contained the likes of Willian and Fernandinho, now central parts of the Chelsea and Manchester City midfield, the prodigiously talented Henrik Mkhitaryan, now of Dortmund, and cult hero Croa-

tian right back Darijo Srna, who was arguably the world’s best in his position around the turn of the decade and who reportedly turned down moves to Liverpool and Chelsea to stay at the club.

This week sees the start of the last 16 of the Champions League, with titans like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, along with underdogs such as Porto and FC Basel competing for European football’s greatest prize. One name that no-one is surprised to see is Shakhtar, up against Bayern Munich after a storming group stage in which they scored 15 goals and qualified ahead of last season’s 4th placed side in La Liga, Athletic Bilbao. An established European name though they are, they have nonetheless been performing against horrific odds this campaign.

The turmoil that has engulfed Eastern Ukraine has been well documented, and despite the ceasefire announced at the Four Party talks in Minsk last week, sporadic fighting has continued and it has been estimated that 29 people a day have been killed in the region since the end of last year. Donetsk itself has been shelled and on the 24th of August shells hit the Donbass Arena, now a makeshift hospital and aid centre, after the people of the city voted in a controversial referendum in May to politically secede from Kiev. The team, now refugees in their own country, playing in the western city of Lviv are stuck between a rock and a hard place, between a fan base that does not appear to support their continued existence as part of the Ukrainian football league and their own profound misgivings about the violence that is occurring in the city and the nature of the insurgency that has driven them from their homes and impoverished and destroyed their city. Captain Darijo Srna brought and sent 20 tonnes of tangerines

(in reference to the Metkovic region of Croatia in which he grew up, as well as to the orange of the Shahktar kit) along with 20,000 greeting cards for the children of Donetsk, to the city in solidarity with its residents. The fact that such a gesture is needed in a city which just last year could support a football club that regularly paid £10 million or more for players has not been lost on the squad.

In an interview with the Guardian ahead of this week’s clash with Bayern Munich goalkeeper Adrei Pyatov illustrated the team’s comprehension of their situation: “If people stop dying everyday, we’ll be able to focus on the game. Sometimes you go out to play after hearing on the news that some bus came under fire and people died and you think about that. It influences you, even if you hide it. Internally you’re not as concentrated. You try to be professional but those thoughts are there all the same.”

Yet the team’s stellar performances this season have given the people of their city a rare ray of light. The team’s progression to the last 16 of the Champions League is good news for a city in dire need of it, and reports that talismanic striker Luiz Adriano turned down a move to FC Porto in the recent transfer window to remain with his teammates in Ukraine will be of great comfort to those trapped in the vortex of a dirty, desperate war in the city he represents.

Bill Shankly famously quipped that football is more important than life and death. Few in Eastern Ukraine are likely to agree with him, but as long as their team continues to show the solidarity and skill it has in such adverse circumstances this season, it will certainly be able to continue to make the space in between far more bearable.

POLO

St Peter’s polo team defend Cuppers title

Page 22

SPORT

FOOTBALL

Shakhtar Donetsk and the war in Ukraine

Page 23

NSL 2015: Thunder take lead, Lightning turn things around

• Atkinson's rejuvenated Loughborough Lightning manage to secure first Superleague win since 2013 against Celtic Dragons • Surrey Storm versus Hertfordshire Mavericks showdown on March 7th at the Copper box already sold out at 5100 tickets DAVID BARKER SPORTS EDITOR

So far, 2015's edition of the Netball Superleague has lived up to all expectations with matches full of surprises, final quarter drama and netball of the highest quality. As we move further into the season, the table already looks far different to where we ended up at the climax of last season. Whilst we have only seen just over a quarter of the matches this season, we can already see significant changes in the balance of power between the Superleague’s eight elite franchises. However, at the top, Manchester Thunder have taken off where they left off by winning their first four games, most decisively against rivals Surrey Storm, and have secured an early lead at the top of the table.

The most notable development in the season so far is the turnaround of Karen Atkinson’s Loughborough Lightning. Having last gained a Superleague victory a full twenty months ago in the 2013 season, Lightning were able to secure a momentous 58-44 victory against Welsh side Celtic Dragons which was followed up by a second 57-48 victory against Team Northumbria.

New signings Peace Proscovia from Uganda, named player of the match against Dragons, and South African Maryka Holtzhausen, have proven to be a huge valuable assets to the team and have managed to maintain a consistent run of form. Atkinson

Playoff predictions are difficult as many teams have shown they are capable of progressing

said that the key to the victories was, “remaining calm under pressure when the crucial moments came in the match,” a problem that the youthful but talented Loughborough based franchise have had in the past.

It would truly be a turnaround to see Loughborough in the playoffs but it is a speculation that looks considerably less outlandish after their recent form.

Dragons have been underperforming thus far and are a far cry from their finals-reaching quality of just two

PHOTO/M PRICHARD PHOTOGRAPHY

• Pictured: Manchester Thunder's Helen Housby taking aim against Yorkshire Jets away at the Leeds Beckett Arena. Final score 51-54 to Thunder. seasons ago. Unable to secure a win forward, Natalie Haythornthwaite themselves in third place. Coach Sam so far and currently sitting at the continues to impress as always but Bird, who has taken over from Karen bottom of the table with the lowest she is not alone in her attacking Atkinson after she took the top job at goal difference, Dragons appear to be ability, with Brie Grierson and Jess Loughborough, has done well to get feeling the loss of shooter Lottysha Shaw demonstrating why Jets have the points on the board considering Cato and will need to find a result the quality to go all the way and reach how close her team's matches have in the next few fixtures to avoid a the playoffs. Their match against been. Her players will need to adapt similar situation to Loughborough experienced champions Team Bath to the new coaching regime if they last season. on Friday will provide a springboard are to have any chance of reaching Cato has been an important for the Jets to stake their claim for a the playoffs and it will be interesting addition to the Yorkshire Jets squad, post-season spot. to see how they fare against the and the Leeds based side appear to be Hertfordshire Mavericks, last year’s rejuvenated Yorkshire Jets in round having a turnaround in fortunes after bronze medalists, have had a tepid six of the competition, broadcast on their disappointing season last year. start to the season but still find Sky Sports.

Having won two of their four games thus far, and most recently coming within three points of close rivals and last season’s champions Manchester Thunder, Jets have a realistic chance of reaching the playoffs. Coach Anna Carter has got the team playing some very good netball and has been able to maintain a balance of defensive rigidity and attacking flair. With Captain Lauren Potter and Tuiane Keenan providing the experience and youngsters Megan Clark and Bea Skingsley putting in good showings from the bench, the Jets defence is up there with the best in the league, and was able to limit the impact of the Thunder attack effectively. Going • Tracey Neville's Manchester Thunder remain unbeaten this season after triumphing in 2014.

Most notably, the battle at the top of the table remains fierce, with last year’s finalists Manchester Thunder and Surrey Storm having met in a thrilling 55-52 encounter that saw Manchester come out on top. It wouldn’t have been unreasonable at the start of the season to expect Storm to repeat last year’s feat of fourteen wins from fourteen in the league phase of the competition, especially with the arrival of England stars such as Pam Cookey. Defeat makes this impossible, but considering the convincing performances they have put in, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a different outcome in their repeat encounter with Thunder at home later in the season.

A great piece of news for the Netball community is the selling out of London’s Copper Box arena, (one of London’s premier venues constructed for the 2012 Olympics) for this year’s South Eastern derby between Surrey Storm and Hertfordshire Mavericks.

With over five thousand tickets sold and an average of one hundred thousand viewers on Sky Sports’ weekly live netball broadcasts, this proves that Netball can be viable as a successful commercial entity.